New safety guidelines to Slow down horses for the Grand National

There has been some concern over the
safety of courses such as Aintree (Photo: Carine06)

In light of recent fatalities and injuries sustained in major horse racing competitions in the U.K., particularly at the annual gathering at Cheltenham, there have been concerns about the welfare of participating horses with regards to hardness of the track and race speeds. 

According to an article in The Guardian, a set of new guidelines have been issued by Aintree ahead of this year's Grand National, which takes place next month, with the aim at slowing down participating horses during the initial run to the first fence, which has been known to be precarious during previous meetings. 

As also detailed in the article, "the start of the race has already been moved forward 90 yards further away from the grandstands in an attempt to keep the horses as calm as possible."

The issue of reducing the pace early in the race is among a series of new guidelines issued in conjunction with Aintree and the Professional Jockeys' Association, following a series of incidents during last year's event. During this one race alone, there were two false starts and two major fatalities, including the death of former Gold Cup winner, Synchronised.

Officials have voiced concern that slowing horses down for the initial portion of the popular race meet is 'easier said than done', due to the logistics of keeping 40 horses together prior to the beginning of the race.

Although these incidents are fairly rare in terms of statistics, it's sensible to try to impose new measures to prevent the repetition of previous tragedies, but is has been suggested that the natural unpredictability of circumstance and indeed that of the horses' behaviour themselves in these kinds of situations is part and parcel of the nature of the event, although measures to reduce the potential threat of difficult fences on this initial run has been welcomed.

However, it has also been reported that the RSPCA has suggested that the iconic Becher's Brook fence should be axed, although this isn't likely to happen. Again, there is concern over the employment of extraneous safety measures turning arguably the most famous competitive horse meeting in the U.K. into a 'flat race', with many arguing that there are more challenging fences and obstacles on other tracks, with some of the lesser fences being the source of several accidents in the past too, so there is no guaranteeing such a drastic measure would solve the problem. 

Either way, there appears to be a lot to think about in the lead up to this year's Grand National, which should be, regardless of apparent controversy, just as big an event as ever.