The Grand National meeting kicks off tomorrow with some brilliant races ahead of the main event on Sunday.

Especially looking forward to seeing Sprinter Sacre on Saturday and the Albertas Run and Finians Rainbow rematch.

I'm heading to Aintree on National day, Everton shirt underneath my suit.

You're going to Aintree on National day, wow good luck!

thursday is always the best day to go
friday is women's day and should be avoided at all costs
saturday is just organised chaos

After the death of 2 more horses , the Grand National has to be seriously looked at , the race is cruel and should not be alowed to continue unless measures are taken to eliminate(not reduce) risk to Horses, it's only a matter of time before a jockey is killed

How about we then use the horse meat on a BBQ, and therefore they haven't needlessly died. Good meat, too.

Good, it will serve them right for forcing a horse into a stall when it doesn't want to go in.

Would you jump on Usain Bolts back, kick him in the ribs and whip him to run faster? No.

Unethical treatment of animals.

They don't use stalls in jump racing.

Well over 400,000 tons of horse was killed for human consumption in 2009 (from wiki) thats equivalent to about 800,000 horses in one year, 812 horses have died in the course of five years of racing in the UK. Puts it into some perspective. In 2009 8.3 billion land animals were killed purely for consumption in the US. 3 million cattle, 13 million pigs, 19 million sheep and lambs, 70 million fish and 800 million birds are slaughtered for human consumption in the UK alone. Just a point that although unfortunate 162 horses a year dying is only one drop in a huge ocean. Around 110,000 innocent civilians killed in Iraq over 6 years. The point being that horse racing seems to be an easy target where there are other more weighty issues that people choose to ignore as that makes them feel uncomfortable. Put into context, sad though it is, the death of two horses is not in the overall context of how we view the horse or animals or even humans in terms of how we value them.

812 horses killed at the races.
How many people are killed or injured on British roads? Do we ban cars?

you always get the anti-racing mob out after the national, where are they for the other 51 weeks of the year? most of them know naff all about the sport either so instead of taking the moral high ground should focus on something they have knowledge of.

Synchronised fell at Beechers, BUT GOT UP AGAIN, and UNFORTUNATELY, sustained an injury whilst running riderless.

According to Pete was brought down by another horse.

These things have been conveniently forgotten about by our hype-obsessed media, who choose to be horrified on ALL our behalfs.

Agree with most of the comments on this thread - opportunism from the media and animal rights activists. It's just bad luck that two years running, horses have died in the race, when you can go 5/10 years without incident.

A footballer died at the weekend, and Muamba almost did a few weeks back. Is football therefore a dangerous sport under 'serious threat'.

As someone alluded to above, most of those slamming the race are people without even the slightest essence of knowledge of the sport. Those who do know the sport well will resonate completely with Paul Nicholls comments.

And Ginger McCain would be turning in his grave at the nonsense being said since Saturday. As he said last year - 'You don't make things better by making it easier. Its speed that does the damage."

I agree with most of the stuff you are saying. however on the footballing front, they both collapsed due to seperate reasons than the nature of how football is played. They never got a ball kicked at them and collapsed, they collapsed resulting from heart failure.

However the nature of horse riding, they are jumping fences which some struggle to get over. combine this with 40 horses trying to get over the same fence at a time, it ceates a high risk sport.

Im not one to say ban the national, i love the national. It brings the country together for one day for a sport that most wont watch for the remaining 364 days of the year. I just wish there were implications in place to stop as many fatalities.

Fewer horses in the race etc... I wouldnt shorten the fences imo, this would allow the horses to gain more pace on arrival of the fence making the landing alot trickier.

Could they not put pillows down for them to land on and shin pads in case they are tripped by a fallen horse?

I agree with that, the speed some of them went off at on Saturday was unbelievable. Approaching those fences at Champion Chase speed is never going to be without casualties.

The risk involved and the toughness of the race is what makes it so popular. Its racing at it's best.

The sooner it goes the better.

Don't like it don't watch it. Don't watch it, ignore it further.

Many are calling for the field to be reduced - I don't particularly see what good this would do. Horses will still be 2/3 deep when trying to get on the inside, and if reduced to 25 as someone suggested in the media, then the Grand National will be no bigger than a regular steeplechase.

andym's comment is spot on. The speed on Saturday was ferocious, not helped IMO by the false starts and if there's anyone to place some blame upon then it is the jockeys. Many seemed spooked by the delay and seemed desperate to hit the front on the first fence.

Will never happen

Synchronised being allowed to run loose for a good few minutes, combined with the delay caused by the false starts, was surely not great for the horses. Surrounded by that many other horses, not to mention the noise that will be generated, would surely get some horses a little edgy.

Can never see the race being scrapped. Many people go to Aintree on the Saturday and have no interest in racing for the other days of the year, they just recognise the National and want the day out. If the race was severely altered, or even replaced, then Aintree would lose out on a hell of a lot of money, not to mention the pubs, restaurants, hotels and other public services of Merseyside. The sponsors, employers that provide race-day services (both on and off course) and bookies (chain and independent) would all be up in arms.

Not Grand National related, but David Pipe's horse Great Endeavour has been put down after breaking a leg in 'A FIELD' at Home.

As Pipe said - the most dangerous place for a horse is the field not a racecourse.

Sad news though, and especially for Timmy Murphy who's house he was settling for the Summer at.