Ensuring the horses at Aintree come first

AS we approach one of the high points of the British Racing calendar, I wanted to remind your readers about the dedication and commitment of the 6,000 people who work behind the scenes every day of the year, to ensure the 14,000 British racehorses receive a level of care and a quality of life that is virtually unsurpassed by any other domesticated animal.

We have a duty of care to our horses and the British Horseracing Authority demands the highest standards of horse welfare from all our licensed jockeys, trainers and racecourses.

We are proud of the welfare standards in our sport. Jump racing has an equine fatality rate of around 0.4% of all runners and this has been decreasing. In fact, over the past 20 years, the overall rate in the sport has fallen by a third and all parties involved are working hard to see this downward trend continue.

British Racing works alongside charities such as The RSPCA and World Horse Welfare and British racecourses are committed to being as safe as possible.

In recent years Aintree and other racecourses, have taken steps to further improve welfare standards. After the 2012 running of the Grand National, Aintree invested more than £1.5m on safety measures. These included alterations to the cores of every fence to make them more forgiving, alterations to the start of the race, enhanced watering systems to provide the safest possible jumping ground and levelling work on landing areas after jumps. There have been no fatalities in the Grand National since 2012, when these alterations were made.

All of the history, popularity and prestige of British racing would mean nothing if we did not care for our horses. That is only possible because all of us who work in British racing are committed to ensuring that the horse comes first.

Nick Rust Chief Executive, British Horseracing Authority, on behalf

of The Horse Comes First