Grand National braced for chaos as animal rights group ‘planning to stop race’ at Aintree | Racing | Sport

An animal rights group has confirmed plans to attempt to stop the Grand National from going ahead on Merseyside this weekend. Aintree will host the latest edition of the iconic steeplechase on Saturday, but the event could be under threat by protestors who want to put an end to horse racing.

In a live interview on GB News, Animal Rising spokesman Ben Newman laid out the group’s plans to protest at the Grand National.

Newman described the sport as ‘wrong’ and claimed that those attempting to stop Europe’s most valuable jump race would be using their ‘bodies.’

He explained: “Yes, so horse racing is wrong, and we can do so much better than using animals for food or fun, and we just don’t need to.

“We’re inviting everyone to come down at 9:30am on the 15th to Aintree racecourse and hope to stop the race. Come on down if you’d like to know more.

“Protest is a fairly common thing in a democracy, and there’s nothing new about it. We’ll be using our bodies, and that’s all there is to it, really.”

Newman also insisted that the group disagreed with using horses for the King’s coronation but claimed there were no plans in place to protest at the ceremony.

Animal Aid’s Dene Stansall weighed in on the discussion with Andrew Pierce and Dawn Neesom, producing stats of horse deaths at the Grand National over the last two decades.

“I agree totally with Ben. 59 Horses have been killed at Grand National meetings since the year 2000,” Stansall added.

“That’s 59 horses’ lives lost at the cost of entertainment and gambling, and we at Animal Aid believe that that is wrong.