Grand National safety
From Jane Davies Sir: The photograph of the mud-spattered, exhausted winner of this year's Grand National appears to have upset Simon Barnes (Sport. 14 April). Neither jockeys nor trainers nor stewards, all of whom he believes to have been recklessly responsible for the 'sheer awfulness of the race', seem to have shared his view that the course 'was not safe'. Did he, I wonder, walk the course with them on Grand National day?
Come off it, Simon! How about rain soaked Badminton a few years ago? Exhausted horses, having already completed a two-mile steeplechase course and several more miles of roads and tracks, slogged through a further four-and-a-half miles of mud. Despite horses cartwheeling over or sliding into and under fixed timber fences, on that occasion no horse or rider was killed, although many have died in horse trials both before and since.
Has Simon protested about the 'awful' recklessness of everyone involved in 'eventing' — the new, more animal-friendly title of the sport?
Acceptable levels of risk must be a consensus between participants and organisers based on experience and not on the wellmeaning, emotional opinions of outsiders, especially influential leading sportswriters.
Jane Davies
Administrator/trustee, Mark Davies Injured Riders' Fund, Cranleigh, Surrey
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