alfrombarking

"On average, three horses are fatally injured over the three-day Aintree meeting."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/hor...t-Aintree.html


33/Grand-National-2012-sadness-as-Synchronised-and-According-to-Pete-die-at-Aintree.html

However,
"The National, described as the world’s greatest steeplechase, is worth a record £950,000 in prize money, making it the richest jump race in Europe."


Nuff said.

OleJanx

I notice that the Managing Director of Aintree racecourse is one Julian Thick...

scrubbedexpat141

Blinding race yesterday.

Horses will fall, horses will die. It's life.

mentalist

Interesting to see that they cordoned off one of the Grand National fences, where one horse was presumably dying under cover of a black tarpaulin sheet, and simply diverted the other horses around the fence in order to continue the race. At the Dubai World Cup meeting, they abandoned the race midway through when a horse collapsed. It says something about the value of life placed on horses by the Arab community...perhaps?

Meow

I think jump racing is cruel and until the jumps and courses are safer it should be boycotted. Sport of Kings? Sport of sadists more like. Anyone who bets on it and says ' shame it's a bit cruel' at the same time is a hypocrite.
I haven't watched it or joined a sweepstake for 20 years.

scrubbedexpat141

Why?

Should we ban football now another player has collapsed and died on the pitch in Italy?

Should we ban motor sports like the superbikes / formula 1 / rallying because people have died competing?

The Aintree course had been adjusted to make it safer and both horses only had to be put down after they were injured running without the jockeys on - how do you stop a runaway horse?

Meow

It is about degree of injury and rates of death. A footballer dying on the pitch is a rare occurance. Horses dying in the Grand National is common.

A human being has a choice about competing and risking their life. A horse doesn't.

scrubbedexpat141

OK so some figures (approx)

GN started in 1839, run yearly = 173

Less the 8 that weren't run for the wars = 165. (Roughly)

40ish runners, some early races had more, some less. Let's say 35 actually to be generous.

That means that 6,600 horses have run (obviously that includes the same horse running several times but that is allowed when comparing deaths per race etc).

Total fatalities = 48

Therefore;

Per race = 0.29 horses die (historically). Roughly.

That (I think) equates to a 0.8% chance of death for each horse entering each Grand National.

I don't think that is a cause for it to not exist any more.

Maths may be wrong, but all based on reasonable estimates

Meow

You have missed out too many variables and over-simplified. The course has become tougher and the horses are pushed to their limits. Why are so many deaths acceptable?

I haven't said it shouldn't exist - do read posts properly if you want to debate an issue. I said it should be boycotted until it is safer. Vast difference.

Millhouse

Scamp - take that not as a slap, more of a high five to your face.

scrubbedexpat141

Boycotting something intimates that in it's current form it is not acceptable.

Jockeys have come out saying that lowering fences and removing some (which is what a number of campaign groups are demanding) would make it more dangerous because constant speeds would increase. The big fences slow the horses down at present.

Other variables to affect the rough figures I gave; I don't see how other things can swing the figures to say that less horses have died or more horses are injured etc etc. I think that looking at basic facts is the only way to really work out how dangerous / life threatening the Grand National really is.

Taking your only point there - making it safer....how?

mentalist

Okay Scamp, so why have there been so many Grand National fatalities in the last ten years? Maybe they should soften the ground on the landing side of the fence? The number of riderless horses towards the middle section of the race doesn't help. They are so unpredictable.

scrubbedexpat141

That's something they did for this year - they changed the landing areas for a couple of the harder fences (levelled them out, made them more stable etc).

Riderless horses seem to be the biggest issue, the two that died this year either got injured when riderless or made their injury worse whilst riderless. I don't know how you stop a runaway horse though.

In answer to the more fatalities I don't know, better trained horses run faster, pushed harder? I don't really know.....the figures are here;

2000-12 - 11
90-99 - 10
80-89 - 4
70-79 - 8
60-69 - 1
50-59 - 6

It's an upward trend but I don't know.

There is no debating it's one of the most dangerous steeplechases in the world, it's also one of the longest at 4 1/2 miles and 30ish fences. I guess this is part of the reason that it is also the most exciting horse race the world offers.

Bahtatboy

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

OleJanx

All too frequently at Aintree, sadly.