IT was a very different unveiling of the Grand National weights this year.

The pandemic obviously put a stop to the Liverpool bun fight where the great and not-so-good gather to find out what they already knew – bar a pound or two either way – about the entries for the world’s greatest race.

One thing that wasn’t different was the trainers’ reactions to the revelations. No one seemed particularly surprised by their allotted weight and for good reason.

The handicapper Martin Greenwood spends his whole working life calculating official BHA ratings for staying chasers so every single National hopeful, even those from Ireland or France, had already been given a figure.

Those figures, if you’ll forgive me for a brief lesson in basic handicapping, are converted into race weights with one point equal to one pound.

Greenwood’s predecessor Phil Smith introduced the tinkering with the National weights around 20 years ago with those at the top of the handicap often cut a little slack in order to tempt them to turn up at Aintree. It was all done in an attempt to raise the class of the race.

Coupled with the modifications to the once fearsome course to make it safer, the handicapping measures have clearly worked.

When Red Marauder won the National 20 years ago the top weight was Beau, who was rated 153. This year the handicap is headed by another chaser trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, the 169-rated Bristol De Mai.

While Beau was a talented handicapper, he was some way short of the class of three-times Betfair Chase winner Bristol De Mai. The cut-off point in 2001 was a rating of 123 which, these days, would have about much chance of getting in to the race as a lame pantomime horse.

The desire to improve the quality of the National has clearly been achieved and the presence of both Bristol De Mai and last year’s Gold Cup runner-up Santini in this season’s entries is all the evidence needed to prove this.

It’s a case of mission accomplished. The very fact that neither Bristol De Mai and Santini has had their rating nudged up or down is further proof that the special measures are now obsolete.

Having the option to change the ratings now just gives owners the chance to make threats about the participation of high-profile horses.

They don’t come any higher in the profile stakes than Tiger Roll. It would be a crying shame if a fit-and-well Tiger were to be denied the chance to become the first horse since Red Rum more than 40 years ago to win the National three times.

Michael O’Leary, boss of owners Gigginstown Stud, started the ‘mind games’ long ago trying to put the force on Greenwood in an attempt to get a favourable weight.

The National handicapper is hardly going to listen to such threats, which makes the whole charade slightly pathetic. After all, the BHA handicappers spend a good chunk of their time justifying ratings to owners and trainers.

It didn’t stop O’Leary threatening to pull the plug on Tiger Roll’s historic National attempt if he didn’t get a weight he was happy with.

It remains to be seen how Tiger Roll goes in his Aintree preparation as this season has, obviously, been disappointing.

He lost out in a big way when last year’s race fell to the pandemic shutdown in a cruel twist of fate similar to the way Istabraq was denied a Champion Hurdle four-timer due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

The call of history should not give him preferential treatment when it comes to the weights. After all, a handicap is designed to give every horse an equal chance.

If the National weights were just framed from their standard ratings all the bleating, all the tantrums and all the threats would stop in an instant.

The option of tinkering with the handicap has, in the past, been used to penalise specialists over the Aintree fences. Is this fair?

Those with a distinct liking for Cheltenham or Chepstow, Stratford or Sandown don’t suffer the same fate.

So why the need for compressed ratings? There is none, apart from a good excuse for a decent booze-up at a swanky venue so the owners and trainers can offer the press their thoughts.

Now, I’ve nothing against a decent lunch and I have to declare an interest in the Grand National weights event having enjoyed the hospitality of the sponsors on a number of occasions – a little too much, some might say, on a few.

The event also creates a good amount of interest for the great race but, surely the minds at Aintree can come up with something original to keep the profile up without expecting everyone to feign surprise after a couple of glasses of Chablis.

Keep the good stuff in the chiller – just come up with a new way of promoting the greatest race without tinkering with what is no longer a weighty problem.

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— Unibet Racing (@UnibetRacing) February 18, 2021