Burden eased for jumpers

Red Rum's 1974 Grand National success now stands in history as the last by a horse carrying 12 stone after new rules balancing welfare with competitiveness were introduced at the start of the current National Hunt season.

The road to next April's Martell-sponsored marathon event begins at Aintree this Sunday with the Tote Becher Chase over a short course of the formidable fences. The new campaign was launched yesterday at trainer Norman Mason's County Durham yard - home of last year's National hero, Red Marauder.

But when the weights for the 2002 renewal are framed next February, the top-rated horse will be allotted a new maximum of 11st 12lb. The new rule also means that, whatever horses are withdrawn prior to the 48-hour final declaration stage on 4 April, the highest-rated of those remaining will carry no less than that weight.

This means Young Kenny was the last horse in history to shoulder 12st in the National, when getting only as far as the tenth fence in 2000. Under these rules, last year's 11st 10lb top-weight Beau - who unseated Carl Llewellyn at the 20th fence, three fences after he lost the reins - would have carried 2lb more.

Last Saturday's Thomas Pink Gold Cup at Cheltenham was the first event affected by the new blanket rule. All early-closing races up to 3m 4f now have a mandatory top-weight of 12st - carried by Eau de Cologne in that case. Races of that distance and beyond must now be headed by a 11st 12lb top-weight and the National is no exception.

"The rule was introduced to enhance competitiveness. Under the old rule, if the top-rated horse was withdrawn the weights only went up to 11st 10lb. Trainers could legitimately exploit that by entering a highly rated horse to compress the weights for a lowlier stablemate," said senior jumps handicapper Phil Smith.