not a waste of time. ok the race is for the mug punter like myself but the spectacle of seeing 40 horses jumping the big fences is 1 of the best in sport. hope all horses and jockeys come back safe

Time to polish me pin up

It's easy enough to narrow it down to a few serious contenders.

Rule out the following:

Horses who have fallen or unseated this season

Horses aged 6 or those aged 12 and over

Those who have completed in previous Nationals


Positives: Form over the National fences.

Fancy Denman in the Bowl and Voy Pur in the Melling.

Yeah you are right, waste of time from a punting view (unless you follow CP's guide ) but reasonable entertainment I suppose.

Do you buy into this 11 stone thing too?

Not so much these days with the compressed handicap, think I read a stat a while back that in the last 10 years one of the top two weights has placed each year.

remember the old saying "they dont give weight to donkeys"

Eh?

becher chase and other races at national meeting over national fences

2002 - montys pass 2nd in a race over fences then won national in 2003

2002 - amberleigh house won becher chase. won national in 2004

2004 - silver birch won becher chase. won national in 2007

probably others also