Gold Dancer had to be put down after suffering a broken back when winning the Mildmay Novices’ Chase on day two of the Grand National Meeting at Aintree.<\/p>\n
The horse dragged his back legs through the final fence when leading Regent’s Stroll and was ridden out to win by four lengths under Paul Townend for trainer Willie Mullins.<\/p>\n
Gold Dancer was immediately pulled up after crossing the finish line, with Townend dismounting and screens erected for veterinary experts to assess and treat the horse but the seven-year-old was put down.<\/p>\n
Owners Gigginstown said: “He’s been put down. He broke his back. It’s terribly sad for the horse. <\/p>\n
“What could Paul Townend do? He felt fine, it was just when he pulled up that something was wrong.”<\/p>\n
Emma Slawinski, chief executive at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Year after year we see horses dying at Aintree for people’s entertainment and a cheap bet. Sadly, Gold Dancer is the latest victim of this heartless spectacle, which flies in the face of animal welfare.<\/p>\n
“The public and businesses should boycott the Aintree Festival, refuse to bet on the racing, and stop watching the ITV coverage and advertising which glosses over the animal cruelty.<\/p>\n
“The government needs to act as the British Horseracing Authority and Jockey Club is prioritising gambling profits over the lives of the horses.”<\/p>\n
James Given, director of equine health and welfare for the British Horseracing Authority, said: “The horse jumped and slipped and lost his back end. <\/p>\n
“He came up very quickly and took one half stride to get organised and galloped away. <\/p>\n
“I was in the inquiry and gave evidence that looked into the incident – I was able to watch front on and behind – and the horse stayed as straight as an arrow and wasn’t deviating off a straight line or being asymmetric, the back legs were following the front legs exactly. <\/p>\n
“It was only when they went past the finishing line that he turned around to the left as the track goes and went from cantering to a trot and the action changed and Paul [Townend] became aware. <\/p>\n
“He immediately jumped off and was attended by the vets. I don’t believe Paul was able to notice that injury at all. <\/p>\n
“He would have felt nothing but normal to him and it was only from the action from a canter to a trot he became aware and acted exactly as he should have done.”<\/p>\n
Two horses, Willy De Houelle and Celebre D’Allen, died at last year’s Aintree Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Dancer had to be put down after suffering a broken back when winning the Mildmay Novices’ Chase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-523634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}