The National show goes on despite all the 'obstacles'

TV VIEW:THEY MIGHT love Grand National day, but the horse-racing world must anticipate the occasion with a certain degree of dread, knowing that it's the one time in the year that a large audience of non-horsie people tune in to their sport.

And when it all goes horrifically wrong – as it did on Saturday – they’ll await with a heavy sigh these non-horsie folk poking their snouts where they reckon they don’t belong: in their sporting business.

But then it’ll all peter out after a week, the National fences might be fiddled with a bit, just to placate the overemotional animal lovers, but it’ll be business as usual in 12 months’ time. And off we’ll go again.

It’s a tricky one for the BBC, of course. They couldn’t ignore what happened on Saturday, and they didn’t – Clare Balding seemed genuinely upset when she reported the death of two horses in the race. But mishaps of that nature can’t be allowed overshadow one of the biggest sporty days in the Beeb’s calendar.

So, the horses that lay dead on the course with a broken neck and a broken back were described as “obstacles” in the BBC commentary box when their tarpaulin-covered remains forced the field to bypass and fence four.Becher’s Brook

Collateral damage, if you like, on an otherwise splendid sporting day. These things happen, don’t you know.

“We were aware of the unfortunate events of the two fatalities. During the race and the re-run this was covered with as much sensitivity as possible,” said a BBC spokesman yesterday, after the channel was lambasted by non-horsie people.

Of course, as we all know by now, people who actually have a vested interest in horses have a passion for the creatures that could never be matched by those mawkish types who just feel sad when animals die after sustaining broken necks and backs. (Do the bookies give you your money back if you put a few bob on them? Is there a death clause in the betting contract?) Take Andy Stewart, the distraught owner of the horse that died after breaking its neck.

“Horses and all animals take their chances in life. This was unfortunate, but I think the nonsense that has been written (about the deaths) is a disgrace. We had Strike The Deal, who was a Flat horse.

“He unfortunately had to be put down because he was ill, but that didn’t make the papers.”

Where do you start? Nowhere, what’s the point? God help us, this fella probably thinks the membership of the Countryside Alliance and Rural Ireland Says Enough (RISE!!) is made up of people who actually love animals.

Any way, the show had to go on. The winning horse, Ballabriggs, was, we were told, dehydrated and distressed after crossing the line, hence the buckets of water being chucked over him.

That didn’t, though, take away from the joyous BBC interview with the triumphant jockey, who, we learnt later, collected a five-day ban for excessive use of the whip on Ballabriggs. Whether that had added to the horse’s distress, well, only horsie people could tell us. The jockey certainly wasn’t asked this touchy question, best not to spoil the party.

A grand party it was too for the McCain family. Ginger, father of the winning trainer Donald, was tracked down by Clare. “He’s a man who never, ever says anything nice about his son, he’s always so rude about him,” she said.

True enough. Ginger even called Donald “a complete pillock” once. And:

“When you’ve got a boy and he’s thick you can only do two things with him – if he’s really, really thick make a trainer of him; if he’s not too thick he’ll go in the army. So the choice was one of two things, so we decided to make a trainer of him.”

Clare: “In this moment of triumph, Ginger, you’ve got to give some credit to Donald?”

Ginger: “Why?”

Claire: “Oh, go on.”

Ginger: “People keep telling me I bred him, I didn’t breed that bugger.”

Claire: “Ginger?”

Ginger: “Yes . . . he’s made a cracking job of him – if I ever meet his father I’m going to congratulate him.”

Ah here, how could you not love Ginger? And how could you not feel for the wife of trainer David Pipe after she sacrificed her leggy modesty in the hope that Or Noir De Somoza would land the National?

“Here he is, just coming towards us, one of the horses with a tongue-tie,” said Richard Pittman in the parade ring before the race.

“Look under his chin you’ll see a pair of Mrs Pipe’s tights hanging out of his mouth.”

The horse and Mrs Pipe’s tights, alas, fell at the sixth, but they lived.

All the sappy folk could hope for was that two more of the fallers, the “obstacles”, died instantly and suffered no pain. And sure, isn’t that what sport is all about?