Timeform question National weights Timeform have questioned the practice of compressing the weights for the Crabbies Grand National in the latest edition of Chasers & Hurdlers, which is published on Saturday. They make their argument in the essay on Tiday Bay who headed the weights when they were published for this year's Aintree showpiece on 11st 10lb. His mark of 162 was four pounds lower than the one he raced off when second to Bobs Worth in November's Hennssy and nine pounds below his mark away from Aintree. Timeform said: "The BHA handicappers have the discretion to treat some of the Grand National top weights relatively leniently, a policy that has always been hard to justify yet seems to go unquestioned. The top seven horses at the top of the original Grand National weights could have run from lower marks at Aintree than they would have been allotted in other big handicaps, though for the three who eventually ran, Imperial Commander, What A Friend and Weird Al, the difference was just a couple of pounds. "The routine compressing of the top weights in the National has been justified by the BHA's Head of Handicapping, Phil Smith, who says 'I believe the effect of weight increases with distance.' "Such an effect apparently applies, however, only to those at the top of the handicap - not to any of those originally allotted 11-3 or less in the latest National, for example - and it apparently does not apply in any other long-distance handicap. The latest Grand National winner Auroras Encore, who carried 10-3 at Aintree, had his official BHA mark raised 11 lb after that race but there was no special concession for him in the weights for the four-mile Scottish National; he made his bid for history at Ayr under top weight of 11-12, which reflected the full 11 lb rise in his BHA mark. "The Grand National is far and away the most valuable race in the jumping calendar in Britain and Ireland and, in truth, the owners of the best chasers shouldn't need any greater incentive than that."
