Am I alone in thinking that a lower profile for the Grand National is the best thing that could possibly happen to racing?
Your view will certainly be music to the ears of Paul Ostermeyer, judging by his previous post on this thread, Tuffers. 
I like all the build-up and the coverage on the day. It’s a unique race, that attracts the interest of people all over the country and over the world. It would be a shame to see it demoted in importance, largely on the back of over-hyped publicity about animal welfare issues and horse deaths.
It’s a dangerous sport and, sadly, it’s inevitable that sometimes horses, or even on rare occasions jockeys, will pay what Alastair Down and others call "the ultimate price for our enjoyment". That’s the reality, sad though it is. You can never guarantee complete safety in any contact or potentially hazardous sport
When you remember how close Aintree came to closing, and the race being lost altogether, during the dark days of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the future of the whole course came under threat, it’s good that the meeting has successfully grown in stature and that Grand National is now in a much healthier position overall.