The consequences of bad ground intelligence can be tragic.
"His form tailed off [last season] but he kept running on bad ground and we nearly pulled him out today because of the ground.
Combine the two, and both the big races in effect boil down to simply this question: can an odds-on favourite reiterate his status in bad ground?
"It was assumed fairly quickly that the other two men were gone as well," says Tony Wright, author of Bad Ground, a book about the accident.
Having spent so long fighting bare-knuckle – against elite steeplechasers in small fields, often on bad ground – he may well find his cushioned weight and naïve sparring partners provide a rather more congenial environment.
Crown spiling is still resorted to for passing bad ground; in this case spiles may consist of rails driven ahead, or even steel bars set in holes drilled into crushed rock.
"His first two runs [with Joseph O'Brien, the trainer's son, riding] were in very bad ground, then Joseph said we should go to Dundalk with him for the fast ground and he won very easily.
"His first two runs [with Joseph O'Brien, the trainer's son, riding] were in very bad ground, then Joseph said we should go to [the all-weather track at] Dundalk with him for the fast ground and he won very easily.
Thus, future moles are expected not only to cut rock but also to explore ahead for dangerous ground; handle and treat bad ground; provide a capability for prompt erection of support, rock bolting, or shotcreting; change cutters from the rear in loose ground; and produce rock fragments of a size appropriate to capability of the muck removal system.
Andrew losing this case is catastrophic for web tinkerers and sets very bad ground for future cases to come.
