From The Times, March 31, 1922:
To the Editor of The Times.
Sir, Much has been written — and talked — in the last few days about the Grand National Steeplechase. It is alleged by many that this race is cruel to the horses forced to take part in it. The cruelty, so it is alleged, arises because the test is a cruel one. If the course is cruel it must mean that the jumps are unfair and not a reasonable test of a horse’s ability. The distance does not arise, since the falls in recent years have always occurred in the first two miles.
The fences are not an unfair test. In the Sefton Steeplechase last week nine horses were started who “at the time of closing were maidens”. Of this nine — each a bad horse — six jumped each fence in the National course without mishap. In the Grand National itself last Friday one horse, Sergeant Murphy, after slipping on the flat and slithering into a fence, was remounted and jumped the course “in cold blood”. Racing and hunting men will realize what this means. The course is not impossible nor cruel.
There has been something wrong about the race in recent years, but the cruelty does not arise from the jumps or the distance. The cruelty — if it is cruelty — is created by owners who will start horses in the race who are not in any way Grand National horses. They have not a thousand to one chance and are a terrible danger to other horses. At the same time, the number of horses who die in the Grand National is remarkably small. I am certain that just as many horses are killed in the streets of London in a week from slipping on pavements as die during the National Hunt season.
This year’s Grand National in any case was not a fair year to take. The surface was very slippery due to rain, and there would have been falls even on a park course under similar conditions. In all great sport there is an element of danger. The Grand National is not in any way more cruel than modern — or ancient — Rugby Football or standing up to Mr Gregory on a fast and bumpy wicket. It is the element of danger in our great national sports — football and cricket — which has made us what we are and what we were when 1914 took us into the greatest and most serious sport many of us have ever encountered, or will ever encounter. I have the honour to be, cross-country.
thetimes.co.uk/archive
