Why The Grand National Needs to Be Banned
From the 3rd-5th April, The Grand National meeting will take place: a brutal event which has claimed the lives of 65 horses since 2000.
Posted 31 Mar 2025

Posted on the 15th March 2019
On the last day of the Cheltenham Festival, two more horses have lost their lives, one of whom died in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
In the first race of the day Sir Erec, a 4-year-old colt, who was hot favourite to win the Triumph Hurdle was killed. There had been rumours before the race that the horse had had a set-back last week. And minutes before the start of the race he had to be re-shod on his off-foreleg. That leg was seen to shatter just minutes into the race.
Later during the afternoon eight-year-old gelding Invitation Only was killed in the Gold Cup when falling at a notorious downhill fence.
The negative publicity surrounding the Meeting is growing ever stronger. The mainstream media had already publicised calls to stop racing at the Gloucestershire course after the death of Irish race horse Ballyward on the first day of the 2019 event.
This Animal Aid initiative is now a key focus as the only option to stem the tide of deaths at the notorious racecourse.
Says Animal Aid’s Horse Racing Consultant, Dene Stansall:
‘Animal Aid demands an end to all future racing at Cheltenham, and calls for the British Horseracing Authority to be removed as the welfare regulator of race horses as a third horse is killed at the Festival Meeting.’
Editors’ Notes
From the 3rd-5th April, The Grand National meeting will take place: a brutal event which has claimed the lives of 65 horses since 2000.
Posted 31 Mar 2025
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