It’s time to end the Grand National once and for all

Do you hear that sound of breathless galloping? That’s the sound of horse racing bosses desperately scrambling to protect their cruel racket, as more and more people notice what happens behind the curtain. In response, the organisers of the Grand National have announced so-called “welfare measures”, for this year’s race – but in reality, these measures are little more than panicked PR spin from a cruel industry that knows its days are numbered. So, racing’s spin doctors can say they look after horses all they like – but the beings they actually look after are the greedy bosses of the gambling industry. On Sky News this week, Animal Rising activist Ben Newman asked horse breeder and racing apologist Kevin Blake whether the statistic of a racehorse dying every other day in the UK was an "acceptable death rate" to him.