Grand National winner Lucinda Russell says changes will make race ‘that little bit safer’

Champion trainer Lucinda Russell has welcomed changes being made to the Grand National as she believes it will make the race “that little bit safer”.

One horse died in this year’s race, which was delayed by 14 minutes after a protest by animal rights activists.

The Jockey Club has announced a number of measures “to better protect the welfare of racehorses and jockeys”.

“The field size reduction I think is fantastic – it is 15% less than usual,” Russell told BBC Scotland.

“It will make the race full of horses that have a higher handicap rating and therefore are a better quality of horse.”

Russell, whose horse Corach Rambler became her second Grand National winner when finishing first at Aintree this year, also picked out the decision to bring the first fence closer to the starting line and have an earlier start to the race as positive changes.

“We were under attack this year because people said ‘was it fair and was it safe?’,” she said. “The changes are not just made willy nilly. They have done their research and have worked out the numbers and taken a lot of advice from a lot of people, not just from trainers but from jockeys as well.

“These changes they are making are not going to make a big difference to the fabric of the race, but what they are going to do is just make it that little bit safer.”

Meanwhile, Russell revealed that Corach Rambler could return to Aintree to defend his title next year.

“Corach Rambler is very good,” she added. “He has gone up in the handicap and that’s good. It means that there won’t be such a weight difference with the smaller field.

“We are going to run him in a race called the Betfair Chase at Haydock and, if he does well in that, he might have to take the route to the Gold Cup at Cheltenham, which is another very high-profile race.

“Ultimately, after that, the Grand National could be on our agenda and he’s in very good form.”