Britain: Arrests of activists and dead horses – Three days of chaos at the Grand National horse race

London, Thanasis Gavos

Scenes of chaos unfolded in the past few days at the historic annual Grand National horse race in Airdrie, north-west England, with three horses to lose their lives and dozens animal rights activists to be arrested.

On Saturday, at the climax of the event with the obstacle race of around seven kilometers which has been held since 1839 and is part of the British sporting tradition, dhundreds of activists invaded the racecourse, as they had previously announced.

A total of at least 118 people were brought in by police, with 60 still in custody as of Monday morning.

Their move caused a 14-minute delay in the start of the race, during which one of the more experienced horses, Hill Sixteen, fell jumping the first hurdle and broke his neck, subsequently being killed.

His trainer Sandy Thomson, in a statement on Monday morning, blamed the activists for the horse’s death, saying they caused him a lot of trouble which led to the fatal accident.

Animal Rising, which organized the protest, expressed its condolences for the incident, but said its actions were aimed precisely at preventing future horse deaths.

Earlier on Saturday, the horse Dark Raven had also lost his life, while the same had happened on Thursday, the opening day of the event, with the horse Envoye Special.

The British Horseracing Authority announced that “will analyze in thorough detail” the races to find out what went wrong.