Second horse dies at Grand National meeting at Aintree, England

Dead. Little Josh.  Little Josh died at Aintree after falling and breaking a shoulder. He was euthanized on the course.  He is the second horse to die at the Grand National meeting. Google image.
Dead. Little Josh. Little Josh died at Aintree after falling and breaking a shoulder. He was euthanized on the course. He is the second horse to die at the Grand National meeting. Google image.

A horse owned by Albion chairman Tony Bloom has died following a fall at a high-profile race meeting.

The Bloom-owned Little Josh fell at the fourth from last hurdle at Aintree, unseating rider Sam Twiston-Davies, who was wearing the Albion-inspired blue and white colours.

The horse limped on but broke a shoulder in the fall and was quickly rounded up by trackside vets and humanely killed.

Little Josh is the second horse to have died in two days at the Grand National meeting as the debate over animal welfare in horse racing stirs again.

Race organisers have spent more than £1 million on improvements to the famous Aintree course after four horses died in the National during the past two years.

On the first day of the festival on Thursday, Battlefront collapsed from a suspected heart attack in the Fox Hunters’ Chase.

Albion chairman Mr Bloom bought 11- year-old Little Josh in 2009.

He has gone on to win nine of his 24 races, with career earnings of £170,000.

The gelding had previous success on the Aintree course, winning the £60,000 Grand Sefton Chase in December and finishing seventh when favourite for this race a year ago.

Since his win in December, Little Josh has fallen at Cheltenham and was pulled up at the Denman Chase at Newbury.

Continue reading at The Argus >>

4 thoughts on “Second horse dies at Grand National meeting at Aintree, England”

  1. VERY VERY SAD, I CAN’T WATCH steeplechase at all anymore. Too many falls for me. God bless them all.

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  2. Ugh this horse had already suffered a previous fall nd was also pulled up. This is telling that this horse was TIRED of this game. It was past time to retire him, rehome or let him be a pasture ornament. Or even let him be a track pony like Lava Man.

    More needs to be done. It’s as simple as that. Lower the fences, don’t have so many, less weight, mandatory retirement–these are just some ideas. After a fall YOU MUST HAVE VET CLEARANCE before training and racing again.

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  3. On a more positive note, the actually Grand National race was far cleaner so it would appear changes made HAVE helped them to improve. Yes there were falls but more horses finished the race, none died or had to be put down and the worst injury to jockeys, that I heard of was whiplash. It just goes to show they are taking the right steps to making this safer, and seeing as you can never ban something as popular as this, safer is all you can hope for.

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  4. The Grand Nationals have a very bad record and is insane to keep horses running under these conditions. This is a nightmare.

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