The weekend’s Ladbrokes Grand National heats have been cancelled, though the event will go ahead in a shortened form next Saturday.
Crayford Racing Manager Danny Rayment said: “We originally only had 12 entries including just one from Ricky Holloway, who we assumed would have quite a few. That was for various reasons including some with soreness, plus a couple who he was a bit cautious whether they might misbehave over six bends.
“After a couple of phone calls which led to trainers offering to help us out with runners, we got it up to 14. We then had a couple of options. One was to run a first round of two, five-dog races and a four-dog event, but that really wouldn’t have been fair to the dogs finishing last in the five-runner heats.
“The other option, which we have chosen, is to run two semi finals next week. Bearing in mind, a couple of the 14 were reluctant entries anyway, we could end up with a couple of decent races.”
The entries include defending champ Bobbing Gnavatar, Borna Rhyth, Springbok third, Ritzy Flyer, but not the winner of the competition, Droopys Chaser. The sole Holloway entry was Feora Noel.
Given the amount of money involved – a £10K prize for two runs – is a more fundamental re-think needed on the future of the National, which was previously run at Central Park?
Danny said: “Possibly. Six bend hurdle races have never been prolific, I would imagine we may face this situation again. It is one thing to run the Champion Hurdle over 380 metres, but would we really want the National over that distance too?
“I wouldn’t want to rule out running the National here again, but it might be better off at Hove, if they wanted it. Certainly it would be over a more popular distance and they would benefit from having staged the Springbok there.”
The Ladbrokes Guys & Dolls will go ahead on Saturday with six heats, each for five runners.
