THE GRAND NATIONAL ANALOGY

THE GRAND NATIONAL ANALOGY
 
If Imagine was a horse, Aintree was the Credit Crunch and you, the public, were a Jockey (bear with me on this), then last March we sat nervously at the starting line with some of the biggest obstacles we were ever likely to face in front of us. You weren’t sure if your horse had the required stamina for the long haul, all you knew was that he was a plucky young stallion who wouldn’t go down without a fight.
 
‘Northern Rock’ was a faller at the first (although his jockey remounted and did continue well behind the rest).  ‘Sub Prime’ who was always bound to struggle at this level, went at the next and the grey horse ‘Alistair Darling’ was already under pressure. ‘Imagine’ safely negotiated the first few fences but other big names did come a cropper. ‘Bear Stearns’ was a huge colt who unceremoniously hit the deck and bought down the massive ‘Lehman Brothers’ in the process. ‘House Prices’ had long been carrying a fair few extra pounds and was now quickly going backwards.
 
‘Interest Rates’ was a popular little filly, strangely more so as she came tumbling down and ‘Libor Rates’ who’d always been an enigma, started to go into reverse.
 
‘Stock Market’ was the next to come crashing down hampering ‘Fanny Mae’ and ‘Fanny Mac’ in the process who went simultaneously at the Foynaven fence, which in turn caused a mass pile up. ‘A Few Watford Agents’ came to grief as the race neared its conclusion and only the strongest survived. ‘RBS’ and ‘AIG’, who both received huge weight concessions during the race, had kept going to this point, but were roundly booed by the crowd for trying to take short cuts and gain further advantages. ‘Unemployment’ continued to rise well but was held back by all the extra weight he was carrying.
 
‘Dunfermline’ tripped up at the last leaving just ‘Fortune Favours the Brave’, ‘Imagine’ and ‘Dark Days’ to fight out the finish. At the line ‘Imagine’ had just put its nose in front of ‘Fortune’ and the pair left ‘Dark Days’ behind them.
 
I hoped you backed the winner!!
 
P.S. Congratulations to ‘Imagine’ on subsequently siring its first foal, ‘Bushey’.