65 horses have died at the Aintree Festival. How many will be killed this year?

National animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports is urging the public to boycott the Aintree Festival in protest at the number of horses that die during the event every year.

Aintree Festival and the Grand National: horse-killers

Figures compiled by Animal Aid show that in the past 25 years alone, 65 horses have died racing at the Aintree Festival, with16 horses dying in the Grand National race itself.

Giovinco and Pikar both fell and died during last year’s Aintree Festival.

The League is also calling for the creation of a new, independent regulator with horse welfare as its main priority to replace the existing British Horse Racing Authority, and a ban on whips.

Emma Slawinski, League’s chief executive, said that “we’re asking the public to stay away from the Aintree festival, to stop betting on the racing and to avoid the ITV coverage and commentary which sanitises this spectacle”:

The death toll at the Aintree Festival is an indictment of racing’s track record in prioritising animal welfare – horses are being sacrificed for entertainment and for the profits of the gambling companies.

The recent Cheltenham Festival, during which two horses died while racing, recorded a 4.9% attendance slump compared to 2024.

As the Canary previously reported, Springwell Bay was the first horse to be killed at this year’s Cheltenham Festival after falling at a fence while racing and sustaining a fatal injury. It brings the death total at the Cheltenham Festival to 78 horses since the turn of the century with Animal Aid figures showing a horse dying at every single festival since 2000.

Shut it down

Emma added:

The British Horse Racing Authority is failing the horses taking part in racing and needs to be replaced with an independent regulatory body with horse welfare as its number one concern and which makes immediate moves to outlaw the whip.

I fear more horses will be lost during the Aintree Festival this year. We’re supposed to be a nation of animal lovers but year in, year out, horses are losing their lives in front of a paying public. It’s time for the welfare of horses to become our primary concern and number one priority.

Featured image via the Canary