Yes says animal rights campaigner Alan Robertshaw of York Animal Aid

The Grand National is the highlight of the National Hunt season and millions of people who don't normally take much interest in racing have a flutter. Then into the arena come the animal rights campaigners, who as usual seem to want to stop ordinary people having a bit of harmless fun.

Sadly the truth is that National Hunt racing is not harmless - certainly not for the horses.

During the 1999/2000 season, nearly 300 horses were killed or had to be destroyed as a direct result of their racing injuries. That is one out of every 31 horses who raced during that National Hunt season.

Looking specifically at the Grand National, the hurdles in this race especially have very little give and when struck at speed by a horse's leg the result is often either a shattered bone or a fall resulting in a broken leg or neck. In such cases the horse is usually destroyed.

The recent history of the Grand National does not make pretty reading for anyone who is concerned for the welfare of the horses taking part.

In 2001 only one horse was killed, but 36 of the 40 runners fell. In the year 2000, five horses were killed, in 1999 four and in 1998 five horses paid with their lives.

This is the immense price paid by horses for our 'innocent flutter'.

And what about the horses that do survive this carnage?

They go off to a happy retirement in the pastoral idyll of a stud farm, happily passing on their genes to a new generation of racehorses, don't they?

Well, sadly, no. The reality is that it is only commercially viable to keep a few of the best horses for breeding.

For the rest, retirement is uncertain. It may involve being passed from owner to owner as someone tries to find a use for them.

But in many cases the animals are slaughtered for pet food.

Call me a killjoy if you must, but I, and other people like myself campaigning for animal rights, would like to see the race banned completely.

Surely there are plenty of other things which we can all do to enjoy ourselves which do not have to involve such cruelty either to animals or people? So why don't we just concentrate on those?

Animal Aid nationally is planning a demonstration at this year's Grand National. Log onto its website: www.animalaid.org.uk to find out more.

Interview by Stephen Lewis

No says Brandsby trainer Peter Beaumont, whose horse Niki Dee will be running in the big race at Aintree on Saturday

IT is one of the great British sporting occasions, and long may the Grand National continue to be run. It is a race that attracts people not just from all over the country but from the Far East and everywhere there is an interest in racing.

To say it is cruel is nonsense. Fences nationally have been restructured in recent years and, while the National is still a tough test, it is a perfectly fair one and the horses are well prepared for it. It is in trainers' interests to make sure their horses are prepared.

You do get fallers, you are bound to, because there are an awful lot of runners in the National. Sadly you do, occasionally, get deaths. But those can occur in any hurdle race even over tiny obstacles, and I don't think it is any worse in the bigger races.

There is far more cruelty to horses in the animals you see tied up by the neck in little paddocks at the back of houses or by the side of roads. Racehorses are very well looked after, better than many animals. They are pampered.

Niki Dee, who is entered in this year's National, was third two years ago, and he's the sort of tough old horse that enjoys racing.

It's just a pity that we haven't been able to give him a run this year, because of the wet ground. He doesn't like soft ground. He's been treated very gingerly, but he has done his work well and I'm delighted with him.

It's not true to say all horses go to the knacker's yard when their racing days are over. They go on to do a lot of things.

Many go into hunting, some go into show-jumping. My best old horse, Jodami, who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1993, lives in luxury these days. I still ride him out, and he lives a life of Riley. We try to look after all our horses, find good homes for them on farms where they are usually riding about, doing a bit of competing in hunter trials and little shows. So they are looked after very well.

The National is a wonderful sporting event and there are far more cruel things going on for the animal rights campaigners to protest about than this.

Updated: 12:24 Thursday, April 04, 2002