Animal Aid

Animal Aid's Horse Racing Awareness Week takes place in the seven days leading up to the country's most famous race, the Grand National. We stage a series of high-profile media events to highlight the suffering involved in horse racing.

The Grand National course is deliberately dangerous, with a series of unusually large fences over a long distance. A set field of up to 40 animals take part - an exceptionally large number. These factors combine to make it a particularly hazardous ordeal, with fatalities occurring on the course most years.

Yet although the Grand National is an especially punishing event, welfare problems are endemic throughout the racing industry. More than 400 horses die during races or training each year and many others suffer serious injury.

Breeding shame

Approximately 18,000 foals are born every year into the closely-related British and Irish racing industries each year, yet only a third go on to become racers. Those horses who do not make the grade may be slaughtered for meat or repeatedly change hands in a downward spiral of neglect. Only a small minority of ‘rejects’ find decent homes.

For those who do make it onto the track, there are problems arising from the obsession with speed. Horses who race on the flat have been bred progressively for lighter (and therefore weaker) bones. Amongst a typical group of 100 animals racing on the flat, at least one will suffer a fracture every month. The quest to breed ever faster animals is also creating serious welfare problems in National Hunt racing, where races take place over hurdles or fences. Traditionally, strength and stamina were the main attributes sought, but speed has become an increasingly important factor. The weaker bones that result may shatter when animals hammer into a hurdle at speed.

Another problem is created by long periods of stabling and feeding with specialised high energy diets. Horses produce acid continuously in the stomach, normally neutralised by a constant intake of vegetable matter from grazing. But racehorses do not have constant access to pasture. A build-up of acid commonly occurs, leading to the development of gastric ulcers - present in an estimated 93% of horses in training.

A hiding to nothing

Apart from the deaths and injuries that occur on the track or as a result of racing, we have called for a ban on the whip - a narrow plastic rod with which jockeys are allowed to hit horses several times during a race. This is intended to make them run faster, but an Animal Aid investigation - featuring a thorough statistical analysis of the whip's impact - demonstrated that, even leaving aside the welfare implications, whipping is counter-productive. Whipped horses become distracted, unbalanced and lose concentration, all of which adversely affect performance.

Perhaps the most damning indictment of the racing industry is its lack of provision for the 5,000 horses whose careers end every year. Many suffer appalling neglect or end up being sold abroad as horsemeat.

For the latest campaign news, plus our previous reports on the racing industry, see the main horse racing section.

Please try to get involved with Horse Racing Awareness Week. Here are a few ways in which you can help.

• Order leaflets and posters from us and distribute them in your high street, outside betting shops and, if you live near a racecourse, outside the main entrance (please call us to check racing dates).
• Send out our standard email about the Grand National to work colleagues, friends and family. It contains vital information and links to our horse racing and horse slaughter footage.
• Link to our horse racing film and horse slaughter undercover film from your MySpace or Facebook accounts with a message to boycott the Grand National.
• Download our new horse racing screen saver
• Download or order copies of our petition and collect signatures – it’s a great way of approaching people to let them know why betting on the Grand National is a bad idea.
• Email the letters page of your local paper – they are often keen to publish your letter and getting into print ensures the message will reach many thousands of readers. Here is a template to help you get started.
• Buy our Horse Racing sticker and put it in your front window or in your car.

Close up on the Grand National

The first fence is big. In fact, it is bigger than anything ever faced in a racehorse's career; four and a half feet high and a stretch of well over six feet. It's an almost solid wall of spruce. Jockeys and trainers claim it's inviting to jump, but when ten horses have fallen at it in one go - that represents a quarter of the runners, including a previous race winner - then there is a major problem.

So, the scene is set straightaway, and if horses get beyond that first fence, there are 29 more to jump - many of them higher, wider and deadlier. Runners face unique problems at Liverpool's Aintree racecourse, including the proximity of a large, noisy crowd; the number of animals taking part; and the nature of the fences. Most years there are fatalities.

An exceptionally large number of horses - 40 - run in the race. This prompts a cavalry charge at the start and a very fast pace. Bunching and bumping also occur. Fallen horses regularly bring down others who then land on top of them.

Extreme race

The Grand National race is almost two circuits, covering a distance of four miles 856 yards - an extreme distance for a horse race. Most steeplechase races are under three miles, two furlongs. There are 16 unique fences, 14 of which are jumped twice. The Chair and the Water Jump are jumped only once, making a total of 30 jumps. Usually distance races at other courses contain no more than twenty smaller fences.

There is also a lack of consistency in the size and style of the obstacles. Most are very high and wide, and all are exceptionally ‘stiff’ (there is no give in them when a horse brushes through the top). Eleven jumps are over ditch fences. These are even stiffer and wider than the others, and there is an open gully on either the take-off or the landing side. At Aintree there are real ditches filled with water at the Becher's Brook and Valentine's Brook fences.

From its approach, the infamous Becher's Brook looks similar to the previous fences, but the danger is on the landing side. It drops lower than the take-off side, so horses land at a steeper angle. What is more, the ground is slanted down into a ditch at the foot of the fence. Over the years, many horses have met their deaths here and, even though the fence has been made less arduous, fatalities still occur.

But the most sudden and potentially hazardous turn in direction comes without warning for the horses. Immediately after jumping the Canal Turn Fence - which is jumped twice during the race - a 90-degree turn is taken. The run-in from the last fence to the finishing line is a gruelling 494 yards.

Roll-A-Joint was a brilliant jumper. He was a previous winner of the Scottish Grand National, yet he became another Grand National statistic when he broke his neck and was killed instantly at this badly positioned fence. His death was seen - as most are - on the BBC TV's coverage of the race. As the horses ran once again around the course and jumped it for a second time, Roll-A-Joint's dead body lay clearly seen, covered by a large green sheet.

The extreme distance of the race takes its toll too. Ten-year-old Ballyhane jumped all the fences and passed the finishing post in 11th position. Exhausted, he slumped to the ground and died from a heart attack on his way back to the stables. Polly's Pal, another victim of the race, died months later. His trainer said he never recovered from his exertions.

Cruelty - you can bet on it

Support for the Grand National is immense. It's big money, big people, and it's the public's big day for a flutter. It is attended by royalty, celebrities and leading politicians from all parties. It is also the epitome of animal abuse. The facts are there, documented in racing's official publications, in press pictures and in the BBC Television recordings.

It is vital, not only to boycott the Grand National, but also to encourage others to do likewise. So, order a Horse Racing Action Pack.