Every spring, the Grand National festival takes place at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool. Behind the glossy images of dressed-up racegoers and champagne is a brutal reality: horses face injury and death while the racing industry reaps massive profits.

The Grand National is the headline race of the three-day festival. It’s the most dangerous race in the world; on average, fewer than half of the horses racing reach the finish line each year, falling at fences, colliding with each other at high speed, or simply pulling up due to injury or panic. 

The organisers are knowingly entering horses into a competition where the odds are stacked against their survival and well-being. Its very existence is indefensible. 

Nobody who watched Celebre D’Allen collapse after being forced over the final fence in 2025 can believe the industry’s claim that the welfare of these horses is their priority. Celebre D’Allen was thirteen years old, and if allowed to live out his life away from racing, he could have lived into his thirties. Deemed profitable and fit to race, days later he was dead.

We know public pressure makes a difference. In 2023, over 100 people joined Animal Rising’s attempt to stop the Grand National and prevent horses from being harmed. On the day, the race was delayed, but eventually went ahead. Hill Sixteen died at the first fence.

However, the uproar brought intense public scrutiny onto the Grand National. The following year, the Jockey Club reduced the number of horses in the race and finally took measures to slow horses approaching the first fence, where deaths like Hill Sixteen’s were historically notorious. 

The changes do not go far enough - the deaths and the falls continue. At over four miles long, the Grand National subjects horses to continuous strenuous exertion for up to ten minutes. Injury and internal lung bleeding are commonplace in even in shorter races; the level of strain inflicted by the Grand National goes beyond any other race in Britain.

However, the Jockey Club’s rapid changes to the race in the face of public scandal show that the continuation of this suffering is a choice -  and that the racing industry will continue exposing horses to danger and suffering as long as they are not held to account. That’s why we are calling on them to finally stop this outdated, brutal spectacle and stop the suffering.

In April 2027, horses will once again be entered into this gruelling race. We will not wait for another horse to die. We demand the Grand National be shut down. 

Tradition and entertainment cannot justify putting horses’ lives at risk. Their suffering matters more than the bets placed, the tickets sold or the prize money won.

Sign this petition to demand that The Jockey Club cancels the 2027 Grand National and ends the race for good.