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Two lost in the Topham – Plasir D’Estruval and Prudent Honour – very strange as both seemed to take exactly the same fall independently at Valentines and never moved at all. Never seen anything like it and no wish to ever again. VERY sad for all concerned … RIP. They were only 7 and 8 years respectively.
I cant watch Aintree any more, it no longer an enjoyable experience.
Seeing a dead horse is not what i call a nice day out
Aintree have major problems when the ground dries out – very hard falls occur and atr high speed due to the jocks not listening to "slow down" pleas.
The fact these 2 (it was Prudent Honour not Noble Intent I hear) fell independently – very odd. I tell you – there have probably been MORE deaths since they lowered the fences, as it has allowed the horses to take more risks at speed over them (watch the old pre 1990 vids and the horses often stopped at the fences before clambering over them – now they jump them the same pace as a hurdle = danger)
It was surreal; I thought my television had frozen.I hope beyond hope that all horses come back safe tomorrow, and feel so sorry for people that have lost horses today.
Yes, sorry, it was Prudent Honour and I’ll correct my original posting.
I agree – I thought my TV had frozen too.Oh dear – I actually read about this on the bbc website, very unusual for them to say anything. What a tragedy, especially with Schindlers Hunt as well.
Do agree about the lowering of fences and the speed – every race I watched yesterday they seemed to set off way way too fast. Really hope they don’t do that tomorrow…..It was a very sad day there at Aintree. Condolences to the connections of all three horses. The incident at Valentines was particularly upsetting.
Hopefully the ground doesnt’t dry out too much overnight and we have a good safe day tomorrow.
very sad to hear, especially over the aintree fences, and being valentines that usually doesn’t have any fallers i too was rather concerned watchign the foxhunters yesterday, wishing they would slow down, don’t think i’ll be able to watch the national, if they set off soo fast at the fences again
vf
I love NH racing but I hate Aintree – National, Mildmay, Hurdle and bumpers. I spend the National looking at the fallers hoping that they get up ok. It was so strange watching today, as soon as they went down I knew both were gone and the high camera seemed to make it worse. Sadly over the years I’ve seen many horses, and even worse two jockeys, killed at meetings I’ve attended but that image will live with me forever. The only one I can remember as horrific was Mr Brooks in the Breeders Cup.
Does anyone know how the grey that was pulled up in the bumper was? The Post only mentions that she was pulled up but after Pagan Starprincess I wouldn’t have too much faith in their reporting. She looked to be injured but it is hard to tell as she was out the back and only in the picture for a fleeting moment.
I’ emailed trainer to ask for update on Baba O’Curragh – will let you know if hear anything back from them.
Thanks for doing that – she looked to have injured her leg quite badly. Fingers crossed she will be OK …
Those two falls in the Topham were dreadful.
It’s interesting to read comments on here, as even though I love jump racing Aintree is a meeting I can never feel any enthusiasm for. They go ridiculously fast, too fast, I had my eyes closed watching the Mildmay.
I’ve made arrangements to do something else this afternoon so I’m going to record it, then I’ll check the results before I watch it.
They appear to have watered overnight which is a good thing.
I agree with some of the posters that making the fences easier has led to greater speed & more fatalities; speed has always been a problem at this course as it is flat, so well drained & dries out at this time of the year.
I don’t know whether any surveys have been done about the numbers of horses that have died since the fences were altered on both the courses? The Mildmay course was a smaller version of the Grand National course fences, but these seemed to vanish one year. Of course there are no drop fences outside Liverpool now since Haydock replaced theirs with big hurdles.
It seems ironic that trying to make jump racing safer has led to greater casualties.I think you have to consider as well that the horses tend to be different too now – the big boned "typical" strong looking steeplechaser is now not considered fast enough so now many are flat bred and tend to look more flimsy – they may not be – but they do go that bit quicker I think … and they also do alot more at a younger age. In the past a 5 or 6 year old would be given a few gentle intro runs, then put away and brought back to seriously campaign as a 7 year old. Now we have horses as young as 4 being competitive in chases … and 6 year olds running in the National (though none this year).
After such a terrible day Friday losing Shindlers Hunt – I cant believe he’s gone – and those two other poor horses, as well as PaganSP on Thursday, I wasn’t going to watch the National yesterday. Now I am glad I did as it is wonderful to know they all came home safe, it must be the first time in years thats happened? RUK said there had been 5 equine deaths over the 3 days, if so who was the other one; I just hope Nick Luck got it wrong and it
was
actually 4 – though thats 4 too many. RIP you poor beautiful creatures.
I love NH racing but I hate Aintree – National, Mildmay, Hurdle and bumpers. I spend the National looking at the fallers hoping that they get up ok. It was so strange watching today, as soon as they went down I knew both were gone and the high camera seemed to make it worse. Sadly over the years I’ve seen many horses, and even worse two jockeys, killed at meetings I’ve attended but that image will live with me forever. The only one I can remember as horrific was Mr Brooks in the Breeders Cup.
Does anyone know how the grey that was pulled up in the bumper was? The Post only mentions that she was pulled up but after Pagan Starprincess I wouldn’t have too much faith in their reporting. She looked to be injured but it is hard to tell as she was out the back and only in the picture for a fleeting moment.
I totally agree rich_ie, I wish the Post would say whats happened and maybe even publish an "obitary" on horses that have been killed, Schindlers Hunt surely is deserving of some tribute. I hope this poor grey you mention wasnt the 5th casualty I asked about in my previous post?
Lydia said at the end of the programme yesterday "you have to examine your own conscience if horses die as its part of racing" but if jockeys deaths became as routine as horses things would be very different.
very sad to hear, especially over the aintree fences, and being valentines that usually doesn’t have any fallers 
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