Riderless horses kept in check

Saint Are, the one Randox Health Grand National runner vets were initially worried about, returned home none the worse for being

brought down at the Chair on Saturday, after a night in the racecourse stables. The 12-year-old, who had been placed in two Nationals, has been retired.

After being brought down by Alpha Des Obeaux, a discombobulated Saint Are continued, landed in the water and then fell at the first on the second circuit.

“I think he might have been a bit concussed,” said his trainer Tom George. “He was a bit shook up and over-heated but because most of the others were fine, at one stage there were 10 vets attending him,

which was an incredible sight. But he’s fine now.

“He loved Aintree. He won a Grade One novice hurdle there, a handicap chase over the Mildmay and was second and third in the National. It’s the only race for him now and as he’ll be 13 next year we’ve decided to call it a day and we’ll find him a nice home.”

It was the sixth year in succession that there were no equine fatalities in the race, since some fundamental alterations to the course and to the construction of the fences for the 2013 National.

The industrial cooling fans and mist machines in the unsaddling area worked well for several tired horses, while the corral did a fine job siphoning off seven riderless horses at the end of the first circuit.

Winning rider Davy Russell said the jockeys knew at the 20th fence they would be bypassing Becher’s Brook, the 22nd, on the second circuit. But the stewards came in for criticism for reprimanding Danny Cook, who had fallen there from I Just Know when leading on the first circuit, for helping the flag men wave the runners round the fence.