Donate Newsletter

Two horses killed at the Grand National Meeting 2021

Animal Aid has called for a ban on the three-day Grand National Meeting after Houx Gris and The Long Mile were killed, bringing the death total for the three-day event to 55 horses since the year 2000.

Houx Gris was fatally injured on the second day of the meeting – he was just four years old. In the main Grand National race on Saturday, The Long Mile broke a hind leg and was destroyed.

‘This isn’t entertainment – it’s animal abuse. Two horses killed in just three days of racing at Aintree is horrific – and time after time, the racing authorities try to dismiss these fatalities as “accidents”. The only way to make this event safer for horses is to ban it.’

Iain Green, Animal Aid’s Director

Background facts

  • Animal Aid has been at the forefront of exposing, and campaigning against, the racing industry for more than two decades.
  • In 2007, Animal Aid launched Race Horse Deathwatch – the only public record of the names and details of horses who were killed on all British racecourses, compiled by Animal Aid’s meticulous research. 2,216 horses have been killed on British racecourses (as of 12 April 2021) since it was launched.
  • Animal Aid’s Horseracing Consultant, Dene Stansall, has analysed the issues surrounding the Grand National in this report
  • Animal Aid’s campaign to ban the use of the whip has been backed by 95 MPs to date
  • Animal Aid’s campaign, which calls for the creation of an independent body to be responsible for race horse welfare, led to a Parliamentary debate on race horse welfare in 2018. Animal Aid continues to campaign for the British Horseracing Authority to be stripped of its responsibility for race horse welfare, due to the shocking rate of race horse deaths and injuries.
  • Write to your MP to support our call for an independent regulator.