August 22nd, 2008
The bigger the odds on the Grand National, the worse the result!
The bigger the odds on a horse running in the Grand National steeplechase, the less likely it is to complete the course, scientists have reported this month. That is one finding of a statistical analysis of outcomes of the annual, world-famous horse race at Aintree, UK. The type of ground, the number of runners and whether the horse had run in the grand national race before all influenced how many horses finished the course. Details of the research are published in the scientific journal Nature. A brilliant team of scientists from the University of Liverpool’s faculty of veterinary science looked at 15 years’ worth of Grand National results, a data set comprising 560 starts, 120 injuries and 156 races.