Gullinbursti, trained by Emma Lavelle and ridden by Gavin Sheehan, was killed during the Topham Steeple Chase. Minella Reception was also treated by vets after a fall at the same fence and was taken to the racecourse stables for further assessment and had to be put down.
These are the first horses to die at this meeting when falling in a race over the National fences since the obstacles were extensively remodelled before the 2013-14 season. The changes were made in response to welfare concerns after two horses, including the Gold Cup winner Synchronised, died during the 2012 Grand National.
There were also two fatal injuries to runners in the 2011 Grand National, but since the fences were redesigned a total of 119 horses have lined up for three renewals of the big race without any further fatalities. Last year’s Grand National marked the first time since the early 1990s that three consecutive runnings of the race passed without a fatal injury to any of the runners.
The deaths of Gullinbursti and Minella Reception will sharpen the focus on welfare issues before Saturday’s Grand National, however, not least because two horses died in Thursday’s Fox Hunters’ Chase, the first event at the meeting over the Grand National fences. Neither fatality was as the result of a fall but both Marasonnien and Clonbanan Lad were put down having collapsed after being pulled up by their riders during the race.
Before Friday’s fatal injuries, the only horse to die as a result of a fall on the Grand National course following its redesign was Plein Pouvoir, who fell four out in the Grand Sefton Chase in December 2013. The Grand Sefton is run over the same trip of two miles and five furlongs as the Topham and Fox Hunters’ Chases.
Twenty-nine runners lined up for Friday’s Topham Chase and 19 completed the course. Of those that did not, four were fallers, three more unseated their riders, and three were pulled up when out of contention.
The British Horseracing Authority said on Friday evening that one horse had been fatally injured in five previous runnings of the Topham Chase. It also said that from about 90,000 runners each year, British racing has a fatality rate of less than 0.2%, down from 0.3% in the last 15 years, although that figure includes runners in Flat races, which have a much lower rate of serious injuries than races over jumps.
The 16 fences on the Grand National course, all but two of which are jumped twice during the National itself, are still dressed with spruce and look identical to the obstacles on the course before 2013.
However, wooden stakes which previously formed the core of the fences have been replaced by plastic “birch”, which is designed to offer less resistance when a horse makes a mistake, and cause falls which are less likely to prove fatal.
