The weights for the 2009 John SmithÂ’s Grand National have been announced and Exotic Dancer tops the list with a weighting of 11st 10lb. For those horse racing betting fans who struggle with the rationale behind the handicapping system, the harshness of such a burden will do little to enlighten them. The net result is that this great horse has now slipped to 33/1 in the betting. Of course, Denman had been expected to carry the top weight but has been withdrawn after his poor showing at Kempton a couple of weeks ago.

Controversy has always plagued the issue of handicapping and, as Lydia Hislop notes in her Guardian blog yesterday, this is nowhere better exemplified than in the mutterings heard from Irish trainers when their horses run in England and English trainers when their horses run in Ireland. For example, Irish and English approaches to the measure of a young horse’s inexperience compared with that of its more mature competitors are at variance with one another. This leads to differing views on the justice of certain weighting results and this National is no exception. Irish trainer, Mouse Morris is already moaning that his Hear The Echo should have been in the 10st 4lb to 10st 7lb area but has been lumbered with a hefty 10st 11lbs. He complains ‘All the Irish seem to have plenty of weight. He doesn’t seem to have given us a fair crack of the whip to me.’

Hislop opines that punters should note that the level of moaning rarely correlates with a horse losing. In fact, there could be an argument that following the moaning with your wagers might produce strangely positive results. By the way, on the original subject of punter confusion, only one horse has won the Grand National in the past twenty five years while carrying over 11st. Makes you wonder why all the 11st plus horses donÂ’t just throw the towel in as soon as the weightings are revealed.