View Full Version : Grand National
Do any of you watch it? Do you find it cruel?
It used to be such a big event when we were growing up and we had sweep stakes all over the place. I was allowed to pick a horse on which to place a real bet. I just used to pick the cutest names, regardless of the odds.
We'll watch it today after swimming, but it will just be the three of us, so not quite as exciting.
FussyElmo
06-04-2019, 03:18 PM
I was saying this to my dh growing up we always were allowed to choose a horse and have a go on the sweepstakes.
We don't even watch it now funny how things change
Mouse
06-04-2019, 06:13 PM
I only really started to watch it when I got married to DH. His family had always followed the Grand National, but mine never had. I watched it for a few years, but don't know. I can't bring myself to watch it as I'm always on edge thinking that a horse is going to fall. It makes me feel physically sick if I see them fall.
I'm undecided whether or not I agree with it, so I just keep out of it and let the family have their sweepstake.
FloraDora
07-04-2019, 07:50 AM
Like everyone else as a child it was always a key moment in the horsing diary with the choice of a horse on a sweepstake, workplace sweepstakes followed.
So I would say that I probably took part for 55+ years.....but never won!
Last year and this year the plight of the horses have been forefront in conversations about it, most are appalled by the deaths of horses, but still have a flutter.
I haven’t been involved in a sweepstake this year ( not by choice, I just don’t belong to a group that does it anymore) but noted the winners nevertheless. So subconsciously it is in my bones.
It is very much a historical event and I do think they are doing their utmost to protect the horses..it traditionally is bigger fences than usual races, the deaths are getting fewer it seems, but the bluntness of ‘horses lose their lives for punters to have a flutter’ doesn’t sit well.