Grand National

I, too, am worried about the welfare of horses entered in this year’s Grand national.

I was on patting terms with one of the National’s bygone winners, Hello Dandy, who retired to the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre, near Preston, Lancashire, where he lived for many happy years.

Unfortunately, most exracehorses aren’t so lucky and end up being sold, slaughtered, or worse still, abandoned in a field and forgotten.

Dandy was a strapping great horse with legs like tree-trunks.

He was strong, robust and bred for the jumping game.

Today’s horses could be flat racing, hurdling or steeplechasing in their lifetime.

To me, they look too spindly and fragile to cope with the hard unforgiving fences of the National.

No one can argue it’s not a do or die course.

The numbers of injuries prove it.

On top of that there’s the whip.

Not all countries allow them, so why are they used here?

Unnecessary and painful, a whip finish is downright ugly.

Marjorie Embling, Crook.