Horse sense

The recent changes announced by Aintree Racecourse and the British Horseracing Authority to the Grand National (your report, 17 August) amount, in Animal Aid’s view, to nothing more than ineffectual tinkering.

The four key changes to the course – which amount to the lowering of the drop on two of the jumps, reducing the height of one obstacle and increasing the height of the orange-coloured take-off board – fall depressingly short of any genuine attempt to address the carnage of the Grand National race.

Despite much heralded improvements over the years, Animal Aid’s new analysis of the history of the race reveals that, in recent years, the risk of a horse dying in the race has increased rather than diminished.

The Grand National remains an un-reformable, anachronistic and immoral spectacle that should never be run again.

Fiona Pereira

Animal Aid

Bradford Street

Tonbridge, Kent