Thoughts on the Grand National

Aintree Race Course

The Grand National always puts me into two minds.  I love horses and also enjoy watching horse racing but the National always seems to end with both horses and jockeys getting hurt over those high fences and the gruelling distance. So it was with sadness that when the horses went round for the second time I saw the black sheeting up and horses and riders were waved around that fence.  I knew something was very wrong.  

Me and the family had picked four horses each and put bets on.  My one remaining horse came in 3rd and my eldest son actually picked the winner and another came in 7th  but I was eager to know what had happened around that fence.  Finally the news came, Synchronised (a horse I picked) and another According to Pete (which my other son picked) both had to be put down.  As always there is the question of whether more should be done to make this race safer.  I am sure that there will be much debate about it. 

It's an emotive subject.  I can remember a horse having to be put down at a show jumping event once and I'm sure there have been others.  Jockeys take risks as do all sports people - look at Formula One, Boxing and extreme sports but when an animal gets killed doing something a human asks of it, somehow that always seems worse.  We ask animals to do lots of things - Police dogs can get stabbed or shot at. 

Every year I watch the Grand National with trepidation and there's a sigh of relief if there are no bad injuries or a death of a horse.  This is the second year running that two horses have died.  If you look at the comments left on Newspaper websites you will see what others think but what do you think?  Should the race be banned, more measures taken like reducing the number of horses racing and/or changing the fences?