THE reduction of the maximum number of runners in the Grand National is not radical enough.

It’s one of the measures brought in to try to minimise the risk to the contenders in the Aintree showpiece next spring.

Of course, you cannot completely eradicate the risk with anything to do with horses, whether that be racing, equestrian, hacking or simply turned out in a paddock.

It remains to be seen if the reduced field size has any positive impact on the safety of the horses in the world’s greatest race, but the time is right, perhaps, to go much, much further.

Well, much, much earlier, to be precise.

The position of Aintree’s biggest meeting in the calendar has become more and more obsolete.

If it moved to early February, the Grade 1 contests held at the three-day meeting would naturally become Cheltenham Festival prep races and there would be more chance of soft ground for the sport’s biggest prize.

No horses have lost their life in the great race when the ground has been officially soft or heavy since 1998, when the fences were bigger, with much deeper drops on the landing side and were built with unforgiving wooden centres that have since been replaced with kinder plastic middles.

That might not be as significant as it looks at face value as a testing surface has been the exception, not the rule, in Grand Nationals of recent history.

But that’s, kind of, the point.

Even with the unpredictable nature of the British weather, it’s still more likely that conditions will be softer in February than they will two months later.

There is also the possibility that the field can be slowed down by easier ground with artificial watering.

Although this is an emotive subject, if everyone knew that the Aintree groundstaff had been instructed to ensure soft ground, like tracks often do in France, there would surely be no arguments.

There’s plenty of staying races in the spring for horses favouring faster ground. The Scottish National and Bet365 Gold Cup on Sandown’s card on the final day of the season are two obvious prizes where soft-ground performers are usually left disappointed.

The attempt to slow down the National contenders would surely have more effect than just trimming the field size and asking racing to hold it’s breath on the first Saturday in April.

The move to bring Aintree’s Grand National meeting forward would also help create a fixture to replicate the Dublin Racing Festival that has been so successful in Ireland.

Many of the Grade 1s at the Liverpool track have become after thoughts with the focus on Cheltenham becoming all encompassing.

I’ve no doubt the racing would be more competitive and attract the best of British jump racing.

If it swapped fixtures with Newbury’s trials day, both meetings could increase their profile.

Newbury could combine one or two of their other meetings to create a two-day event that could easily be more significant than the stand-alone February card is now.

It would be a radical move that is bound to have the traditionalists spluttering, but this change could safeguard the National and reinvigorate the jumps season either side of the Cheltenham Festival that has come to dominate the post-Christmas months.