Paul Nicholls shows how horse racing is out of touch

Paul Nicholls, the owner of the winning horse at last Saturday's controversial Grand National, thinks that it wads "fantastic race" and that critics of the race, which saw two horses being killed, should "grow up".

He also called for the media to focus more on the positives of the race.

Paul Nicholls is one of horse racing's most successful owners, and, while he's not a spokesperson for the horse racing industry, it's fair to say that his views are typical of those within the racing fraternity - a "sport" which sees around 420 horses killed at racecourses annually and many more killed away from race days.

Mr. Nicholls went on to say that everyone knows the risks but that it is the Grand National. He ignored the fact that do many horses die in less high profile races throughout the year.

Paul Nicholls outburst shows our of touch with the public mood the horse racing industry is and why restrictions need to be placed on future races and the risks involved.

Last year's Grand National...

Don't forget your Grand National Sweepstake for this year's race!

Grand National Sweepstake!!!

Here's your sweepstake kit for this year's Grand National.

Simply print this page and cut out the individual numbered tickets.

Everyone gets to pick a number.

If a horse dies, or is killed, during the Grand National by the method listed on your ticket YOU WIN!

CONGRATULATIONS - AND HAVE FUN!

1 Broke down - destroyed

2 Fell - fatally injured

3 Collapsed and died after winning race

4 Fatal fall

5 Collapsed and died during race

6 Pulled up - broke front leg - destroyed

7 Collapsed and died after race

8 Fell - broke elbow - destroyed

9 Broke leg - destroyed

10 Pulled up lame - destroyed

11 Broke Hind Leg - destroyed

12 Fell - injured - destroyed

13 Fell - broke foreleg - destroyed

14 Fatally injured

15 Lost action -injured - destroyed

16 Fell - broke neck - dead

17 Stumbled and fell on bend - fatally injured

18 Heart attack during race

19 Leg injury - destroyed

20 Collapsed during race - dead

21 Slipped landing over jump - injured neck - destroyed

22 Broke down - fatally injured

23 Tendon injury - destroyed at later date

24 Broke hind leg - destroy

25 Fractured pelvis - destroyed

26 Collapsed during race - fatally injured

27 Fell - Broke Shoulder - destroyed

28 Pulled up - fatal injury

29 Ran loose - heart attack

30 Fell - Broke Foreleg - destroyed

31 Collapsed and died after race

32 Fractured knee - destroyed

33 Pulled up lame - destroyed

34 Struck into - destroyed

35 Injured in race - fractured pelvis - bled to death in horsebox

36 Broke Cannon Bone - destroyed

37 Broke leg after finishing line - destroyed

38 Broke fetlock - destroyed

39 Slipped up on bend - injured - destroyed

40 Hit fence and nearly fell - broke leg - destroyed

These are all ways that horses have been killed as a result of races in the past year. Approximately 420 are killed at race courses every year but many more are disposed of during training, often because they are a financial burden.

Horse Death Watch

COMMENT: There is no such thing as a harmless flutter

Yesterday, in a minor race not even run over the big Grand National fences, a horse was killed at Aintree.

Between the Cheltenham Festival and Aintree's Grand National meeting, a period of less than a month, 8 horses were killed on British racecourses across the country.

Every bet, every single flutter that people have contributes to this carnage.

The horse racing indistry don't care about horses - if they did they would end their barbaric business, or, at the very least, do more towards caring for horses, but instead, of the millions the horse racing charity raises annually 0.05% is put into caring for retired horses. The rest are massacred because they are just a financial burden.

Tomorrow, instead of your flutter on the Grand National, why not put that money to better use?

And so the Grand National meeting begins...

The Grand National might not be until Saturday afternoon, but the Aintree meeting starts today.

To keep up to date with the latest news from the course: CLICK HERE.

It's worth a look through at how many horses die at racecourses and go, largely, unreported. Since the Cheltenham Festival, only one month ago, 8 horses have been killed at British racecourses.

COMMENT: How much longer can a civilised society tolerate horse racing?

Today the annual blood bath begins - grandly called the Cheltenham Festival as if there is something about animal abuse that should be celebrated.

Horse racing is wrong.

It is abuse.

It is cruelty.

It has little to do with a love for animals and all to do with gambling.

In recent years the Cheltenham Festival has witnessed the killings of so many horses that even the organisers have taken action to try to minimise the problem but this doesn't mean that horse racing is a caring, loving, animal friendly sport.

Far from it.

For every Kauto Star that becomes a celebrity there are many, many horses who are killed by their owners because they're not fast enough, haven't win enough money or are too old to race any more. Few race horses have long retirements, too many are sent to the abattoir, discarded like a pair of old jeans.

Sadly, because so many in the British establishment gave an interest and involvement in horse racing, it has an air of respectability. Quite why I will never understand. And the broadcast media goes overboard at regular intervals throughout the year: Cheltenham, the Grand National, the Derby...

Horse racing is cruel. The jockeys have made much if the new whip which, they claim, is more about sound and less about pain. That is irrelevant. We should not be whipping horses purely for entertainment and to support the corrupt, global betting markets.

Sure, flat racing is safer than jumps. Well, it's safer on race day. The owners and trainers kill just as many flat racers as National Hunt horses away from the courses.

And it is no argument that horses naturally run and jump. No animal should be used for entertainment. Crufts, the dog show that finished last weekend, is an atrocity of dangerous selective breeding and making animals do things just for human entertainment, and the selective breeding of race horses has made them into very fragile beasts, most unlike their natural cousins.

The government has recently announced they will ban the use of "wild animals" in circuses. This is to be applauded as it is a situation that should have been stopped decades ago. But while elephants, tigers, zebras, etc. will be protected from any further abuse by new legislation race horses will continue to be misused and abused, injured, drugged and killed so that people can "have a flutter".

Let's not be naive. The use of the term "have a flutter" is deliberately used to make it all seem innocent fun, but alongside every once or twice a year punter there are countless gambling addicts whose life, and the lives of their families, are destroyed by gambling. And beyond them are the international betting syndicates that have destroyed the credibility of cricket and who are without scruple or moral code.

I'm often surprised that bookmakers don't seem to offer odds on the number of horses that will be killed during a race meeting.

If we were a civilised society we would treat all animals with care and respect. Sadly, while horse racing is seen as an acceptable pastime, we are still a society of barbarians.

65 things I hate

This is a list of the things I think the world could do without, because I hate them.

Some are more major than others but I find all of them abhorrent: 

1. The Monarchy - really, in the 21st century, what is the justification for selecting a head of state by which birth canal someone passed?

2. Adverts during movies on TV - it's just so irritating, particularly if they're at totally random moments 

3. Paul McCartney - he makes my skin crawl - smug and arrogant, prides himself on his ignorance of musical notation and there are major questions to be answered as to who really wrote his various "classical" compositions 

4. Religion - all superstitions - based on lies, it's the biggest fraud in the world - used the manipulate, control and abuse - truly evil 

5. Honours - I have no issue with honours given for genuine achievement but people who accept knighthoods, OBEs, MBEs, etc. in the name of the British Empire - ugh! The British Empire was an appalling institution that abused its position of power around the world 

6. The Military - pure evil - arms trade, politicians, soldiers, sailors, airmen

7. People who argue against racism/sexism but, in reality, are only proposing a different bigotry - in this category I would include those who support Harriet Harman's faux-feminist leanings

8. Manchester United and, very specifically, Alex Ferguson 

9. Positive discrimination - there is nothing positive about positive discrimination - it is just discrimination 

10. David Jason - over-rated and Only Fools and Horses isn't funny 

11. Reality TV shows and the way they now dominate the TV schedules - sure, have a singing competition but does it really need 2 hours of Saturday prime time AND an hour on a Sunday?

12. Tories

13. The need for speed - thosepeople who refuse to stick to speed limits and see it as an infringement on their civil liberties rather than a safety measure

14. Alan Carr - how on earth has he had a career?

15. Using less when it should be fewer and using fewer when it should be less - Alexander Armstrong on Pointless is the worst offender in the world!! Less sand, fewer grains. Less beer, fewer pints!

16. Unions - they don't unite they divide and, increasingly, they play politics rather than simply represent workers

17. Phone in shows where dullards and bigots are given airtime - just cut them off 

18. Tracy Emin - ugh!

19. Lib Dems who stayed being Lib Dems after they had sold out for 30 pieces of silver

20. People who think it's cool to be thick, common, ignorant - the TOWIEfication of society

21. Mis-used apostrophes - it's really not that hard to learn when and when not to use an apostrophe 

22. Cliff Richard - awful, awful, awful - loved it when he was shown up as a wine fraud! 

23. Victoria Derbyshire's Radio 5 show - inanity and soft questioning are queen

24. Nigel Farage - UKIP's leader... says it all really

25. People who can't debate properly 

26. Tailgaters - just get back you idiot!

27. Eddie Jordan - probably the worst sports presenter in the history of the world

28. Cold-callers - even as a member of the Telephone Preference Service we still get cold-callers trying to sell us stuff, so intrusive

29. Angling - cruelty masquerading as sport - let's rip apart a fish's mouth then throw it back in the water!

30. The Sound of Music - dreadful songs, ridiculous story... awful movie

31. Red poppies - not the real flowers (they're lovely), the ones sold by the British Legion for remembrance but increasingly a symbol of jingoism

32. The normalisation of gambling - its gradually become a normal part of life, slot machines everywhere, discussed on radio - it's a stupid thing to do and should be banned

33. Excessive street markings and road signs - also too few (roundabouts that don't give a clue) - there are way too many signs and too many markings. They spoil the countryside in particular. 

34. That song from Titanic - the ship deserved to sink if that's the song it is now best remembered for

35. People who read your blog but comment on Twitter or Facebook rather than on the blog

36. Christmas - there's nothing wrong with a mid-winter festival but why have one based on a lie, an historical event that never happened that celebrates someone who never existed

37. The clocks being changed - twice a year they're put forward or back - why? Choose one time and leave it alone all year

38. Andy Parsons - his presentation is just horrible - lots of his jokes are quite good but he wastes them with his grating voice and demeanour

39, Party Politics and the whip system - all MPs should be individuals voting freely on all issues 

40. People who do Follow Friday for ALL the people they follow on Twitter

41. Nationalism/Jingoism and having to be British - I just don't get why anyone would be proud to be any nationality - the root of all the wars not caused by religion

42. Meat - there's no need to kill animals for humans to survive - our teeth are herbivore's teeth (small incisors) not those of meat-eaters

43. Inverted snobbery - people from working class who have irrational hatred of things like Oxbridge

44. The right-wing press - Daiky Mail, Daily Express, Daily Telegraph, The Sun, etc.

45. Intelligent Design - when the Christian church realised that the creationist lie wasn't accepted by sane people they tried to con people with I.D. - just as much a fraud as creationism

46. Popular culture that masquerades as art - the worse excesses include people who claim Eminem is the new Shakespeare or that if Mozart were alive today he'd be composing pop songs 

47. Windows computers  - it's very simple, they're not as good as Apple (who they continually mimic several years late)

48. Memory (from "Cats") - awful, awful, awful whining 

49. Shaving - really hate shaving - I wish there was a permanent way to stop the hair growing

50. Facial hair - "Never trust a man with facial hair" - and always be concerned about women with facial hair!

51. TV shows that continually tell you what's already happened - this particularly happens on Channel 4 lifestyle shows like Location, Location, Location and anything fronted by Sarah Beeny

52. Louis Walsh - how has this moron had such a successful career

53. Pet dogs - they're just stupid, smelly, shit machines 

54. Disney Stores - so much plastic tat, it makes IKEA seem environmentally friendly 

55. Boozy Brits - not just the binge drinkers and clubbers lying in gutters on a Saturday night but those who arrive somewhere and instantly want to know where the bar is

56. Unchained Melody - just dreadful song that keeps being covered

57. The dumbing down of education - what hope for the future when the UK's education system is aimed at the average student (at best)

58. Answering back - I just can't tolerate it

59. Capitalism - time and time it fails but, because the banks rule the world, it keeps getting more and more chances

60. Theme Park rides - they make me feel sick

61. Pescetarians who claim they're vegetarians - if you eat fish you are not a vegetarian - it's very simple

62. Horse racing - it's animal abuse - doesn't matter if it's flat racing or jumps. 

63. Imagine by John Lennon

64. Patrick McLoughlin, MP - my local MP and Chief Whip for the Conservatives - he used to claim £400 per month groceries without producing a receipt and also flipped his house to rip off the tax payer

65. McDonald's - they've tried to make themselves appear greener and healthier but they're still destroying the rainforests and produce very unhealthy food that they target at children  

There's many more things.... but these will do for starters!