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Why wasn’t he pulled up? Clearly in bad shape after that huge mistake. Hope he survives, but this looks very bad n front of the packed stands.
It is a difficult and unfortunate situation. In an ideal world he should have been pulled up but I don’t believe there is a jockey riding who would have pulled up when he knew he was something like 10 lengths clear. He might have done if the horse was upsides something else or had jumped the fence in second place.
At least he could have eased down a bit. I hope he didn’t do any internal damage that might cause some sort of bleeding.
Yes, I selected it but my first reaction was “Pull up!” after he landed at the last.
Dreadful. Very sorry for whoever looked after the horse.
The incident at Fakenham looked bad but this looks a great deal worse. As I said, in an ideal world Townend should have pulled up – but there was little chance of that with the adrenalin flowing and a race on the line.
Hostile newspaper and media coverage incoming..
ITV just confirmed it – I shudder to think how this is going to be spun by the media who no doubt had been hoping for something bad to happen in the Grand National but now have this as an added bonus in their eyes (a jockey continuing to ride a clearly injured horse that subsequently had to be put down).
Racing better brace itself.
Condolences to connections and as always especially to the groom.
Put down due to broken back. Jockey said horse didn’t feel any different until he pulled him up after the line.
Just catching up on this and that horse did not look right after the last, I have no idea if Townend would have felt this.
The more I know the less I understand.
I remember I was a guest of the owner when Graham Lee rode a horse at Ayr that sprawled like that on landing at the first fence. He stopped immediately, luckily the horse was OK, but Lee got it spot on.
Fleet Street’s finest are already on the case:
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/horseracing/2192654/Gold-Dancer-dead-Grand-National-horse/amp
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/gold-dancer-dead-grand-national-36995841.amp
The adrenaline high will mask an incredible amount of pain unfortunately – the thing that might not be known is whether the actual mistake caused the injury itself or whether the galloping right to the finishing line did the damage.
There is no arguing around this incident of a jockey continuing to ride out (and using his whip to boot) to the finish after that with the reasoning that he didn’t feel anything different until he pulled up – what the viewing public could clearly see was that the horse was clearly not moving right….even the commentator mentioned it and was clearly uncomfortable that the jockey was continung to ride a finish.
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