For Once The Daily Mail Gets It Right !

[jamesww]

It's worth clicking on the link to see all the photos of the race.
I won't post them here as I think we've one or two sensitive souls left here.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1375210/Grand-National-2011-Ballabriggs-wins-day-drama-Aintree.html

Aintree's darkest day: Critically ill jockey fights for life after BBC is accused of Grand National 'carnage coverup' over deaths of horses
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Jockey Peter Toole is in a critical condition in hospital after being hurt in a heavy fall at Aintree on Grand National Day.

Toole was injured when his mount, the outsider Classic Fly, crashed to the ground in the early stages of the John Smith's Maghull Novices' Chase, the 2.15pm race on the card yesterday.

His fall came before two horses died during yesterday's Grand National in one of the most 'distressing' races in recent history.

The 22-year-old Irishman was taken to the nearby Fazakerley Hospital then later transferred to the hospital's Walton Centre For Neurology & Neuro Surgery.

There was no comment on his condition from the hospital when MailOnline enquired this morning.

Lambourn-based trainer and ex-jump jockey Charlie Mann, to whom Toole is attached as a conditional jockey, wrote on his official Twitter account: 'Peter Toole being kept under sedation in hospital [with] possible head injuries.'

Lambourn-based trainer Mann of the Whitcoombe House yard continued: 'Thoughts with him & family.'

He said the fall had been 'horrible' and that Toole had been knocked unconscious.

During the Grand National, millions of TV viewers saw Ornais fall at the fourth fence, breaking his neck, while Dooneys Gate broke his back minutes later at Becher's Brook.

It meant that for the first time in the race's history the two fences were bypassed during the second circuit of the Aintree track – as the horses were hastily screened off with tarpaulins.

But the BBC was accused of a 'cover-up' after commentator Mick Fitzgerald described the dead horses as 'obstacles'.
.....

[jimmy olsen]

Brutal.

Hope he recovers.

[CountDeMoney]

You English types really need to knock it off with those bullshit obstacle courses.
Run them in circles, go fast, turn left.  It's less dangerous for the horses.

[jamesww]

You English types really need to knock it off with those bullshit obstacle courses.
Run them in circles, go fast, turn left.  It's less dangerous for the horses.

Yes, largely; some national hunt races are ok, the fences little more than approximations of small country hedges, but Aintree is just brutal. 

[Josquius]

You English types really need to knock it off with those bullshit obstacle courses.
Run them in circles, go fast, turn left.  It's less dangerous for the horses.

But it makes grand national betting pools so much more exciting! If your horse dies you have to spend the rest of the week with your underpants on your head!

[grumbler]

Safety is the first priority for the organisers of the Grand National meeting

Three horses die on average each year in this race, and that is with "safety" as "the first priority?"   

Imagine what it would be like if they put profits first! 

[jamesww]

Safety is the first priority for the organisers of the Grand National meeting

Three horses die on average each year in this race, and that is with "safety" as "the first priority?"   

Imagine what it would be like if they put profits first! 

Indeed, though it's 3 deaths over the whole meeting, which is 2/3 days and probably 6-12 races, though none are as dangerous as this one.

What'll make this story worse, is the jockey is in intensive care, if he dies no doubt they'll be lots of tearful stories in the media, but the fact he entered this race of his own volition, as opposed to the horses who had no choice in the matter, will be forgotten.