Thrills and chills at the Grand National

Dear readers — welcome to your Monday briefing. We hope you had a wonderful weekend basking in the glorious sunshine. Now we just have to wait for the temperature to catch up…

Catch up and coming up:

• Over the weekend, we published Jack Lyons’ incredible story about The Martin Gallier Project, a charity that offers support to people in suicidal crisis on the Wirral. “Excellent article, brilliant way forward — one of many — to reach out to people to stop them falling into despair,” one of you wrote in the comments. Read it here.
• We also published Abi’s lovely interview with Andrew Ibi, the head of fashion at Liverpool John Moores University, who's appeared in the pages of Time OUT Magazine and partied with DJ greats like Mr Fingers. Read that here.
• Coming up this week, Shannon looks into the changing tides of ownership for some of the city’s most famous pubs.
• We also have an investigation into one of Liverpool’s biggest educational providers by Abi, and a riveting weekend read from Laurence on the current state of Liverpool’s film industry.

Open newsroom

• Have an important story you think we should be looking into? Thoughts about our coverage generally? You can reach us at editor@livpost.co.uk. All tips will be treated with the utmost sensitivity and confidentiality. 

The big story: Aintree has hosted another successful Grand National. But questions remain over the event’s safety — and the sport’s legitimacy.

The winners: Nick Rockett has won the 177th Grand National, seeing off a late challenge from last year’s winner I Am Maximus. The latter came agonisingly close to repeating its 2024 feat (which would have made the champion horse only the eighth double-winner in the race’s history).

It was a glorious occasion for Willie Mullins, who not only trained the 33-1 Nick Rockett and the 7-1 defending champion I Am Maximus, but also the third place winner Grangeclare West. All in all, five out of the front seven were trained by Mullins, and his son, Patrick, rode the winner over the finish line.

Context: The world-famous steeplechase was the centrepiece of the annual three-day meet at Aintree, which was expected to see 150,000 people descend upon the Merseyside racecourse. Ladies’ Day on Friday coincided with the hottest day of 2025 so far, with many women enjoying the Spring sun in fascinators and haute couture dresses (many of them, at least according to an Echo video interview, from such luxurious fashion houses as Amazon and Shein). 

A countrywide spectacle first held in 1839, the occasion is renowned for bringing in viewers not usually interested in horseracing: a third of all British adults typically place a bet of some kind on the big race. A 2023 study showed that the Grand National is worth £60 million to the local economy.

‘Animal cruelty on an industrial scale’?: In recent years, the event as well as the wider sport has attracted criticism from those who consider the practice cruel and outdated. The Grand National is especially notorious for its high fences, including the Chair, Valentines, and Becher’s Brook. Three horses died and 118 protesters were arrested at the 2023 meet, as The Post reported at the time. (And last year, we sent Jack Walton to cover the occasion – much to his chagrin.)

Before this year, a total of 65 horses had died during the Aintree Festival since 2000. In the second race on Thursday, Willy De Houelle became the 66^th, suffering a fatal fall. Jockey Rachael Blackmore was taken away in an ambulance. In response, Nina Copleston-Hawkens, Animal Aid Campaigns Manager, had this to say:

"The racing industry has been marketing the Grand National meeting recently as ‘the greatest story in sport’ – in what world is that remotely possible? No amount of champagne, fancy outfits or clever marketing can disguise this for what it is: Animal cruelty on an industrial scale."

Deaths averted: On Saturday’s National itself, Broadway Boy ran heroically, leading the field on the second circuit until it fell at the 25^th fence. In a horrific live spectacle, the gelding landed neck-first before lying motionless. ITV cameras did not return to the scene and its commentators did not provide an update until half an hour after the race’s finish, leading to speculation online that Broadway Boy had broken its neck.

Ben Newman of the animal rights charity Animal Rising criticised the broadcaster’s decision: “ITV’s cowardly refusal to replay the 25th fence where Broadway Boy fell, while commentators gushed over racing’s welfare standards, shows the depths to which the industry will sink to save itself. When the public sees the grim reality and suffering within horse racing, they rightfully recoil.”

It later transpired that Broadway Boy was able to walk into the horse ambulance, and was last night reported to be making good progress.

Another horse, Celebre D’Allen, was pulled up after jumping the last fence before collapsing on the course. Although the horse required veterinary attention, Celebre D’Allen was able to walk into the ambulance and is said to be in recovery.

Celebre D’Allen’s jockey, Michael Nolan, faced a stewards’ inquiry and was subsequently banned for 10 days for continuing to ride after the horse’s chance had clearly gone. The sport’s defenders may point to that, as well as the safety improvements made to the course over the years, as proof that the animals’ welfare is taken seriously. 

Balancing thrills with safety: During the 1970s and 1980s, the Grand National saw a total of 12 horses die. Half of those were at Becher's Brook, with its infamous 6’9” drop on the landing side, But even that notorious fence has not caused a fall in eight years or a fatality in 14. After a number of new measures to improve safety for the horses, including softening fences and reducing the field from 40 to 34 competitors, no horses died at the Grand National last year and the highest number finished since 2005.

Peter Singer, the Australian ethicist and animal rights campaigner, once said that "given the relatively small number of animals involved and the more individualised attention racehorses get, that the suffering of racehorses is insignificant compared to, say, the suffering of factory-farmed chickens and pigs."

But race organisers are often caught between a rock and a hard place, trying to appease animal rights groups while not alienating fans attracted to the risk and thrills. The Guardian reported last week that many traditionalists have railed against the “Plastic” National. “I have friends who have been in the sport for 50 years, who say that it has lost its character, and is not what it was,” Dickon White of the Jockey Club told the paper. The brutal fact is that the danger and the preeminence of the Grand National have been inextricably linked.  

Transport profiteering?: Further controversy involved Merseyrail, who ran extra trains over the weekend but were accused by the National Union of Rail and Maritime Transport Workers (RMT) of imposing a nearly-19% fare hike on travellers to the racecourse.

"Merseyrail's decision […] is blatant profiteering and punishing passengers for going to enjoy a major national event,” said RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey. “At a time when they are reaping record profits and distributing millions to shareholders, it is totally unjustifiable to impose additional financial burdens on passengers. This exploitation of festivalgoers underscores the need for Merseyrail to be taken into public ownership as soon as possible."

In response, Merseyrail said the costs were necessary to fund more frequent services and extra staff. “Customers are still able to buy Merseyrail’s full range of tickets at staffed ticket offices & through ticket vending machines if they wish”, said Greg Suligowski, the operator’s head of communications. 

Bottom line: As a sport, horseracing has long been a key aspect of working-class sociability, whether at home, in work, or down the pub. It’s also been an important agent of social cohesion, with Grand National punters coming from all classes and backgrounds. While the concerns of animal rights protesters must be taken seriously — steeplechasing is by far the most dangerous equestrian sport — fans of horseracing are entitled to wonder why upper-class pursuits involving horses like polo or dressage seldom receive criticism considering the stress that is placed on the animals. Sports fans in general may decry the outsized debate in comparison to factory farming more generally. The press may bear some responsibility for this: while organisations like Animal Aid monitor horse fatalities all year round, media attention fixates on Grand National Day specifically. The popularity of the race itself, and the sport more generally, will inevitably lead to higher scrutiny, but the profitability may be a permanent obstacle to genuine and lasting change. 

What do you think – is the Grand National here to stay?

Photo of the week

The Museum of Liverpool at sunset by @Ichbingen on Reddit. A controversial and indeed hated building by many – here at Post HQ, we happen to be big fans. 

Your Post briefing

Fixed penalty fines for littering could increase by more than £100 in a plan by Liverpool City Council to clamp down on rubbish. Currently, the council spends more than £12 million a year on clearing up littering and fly tipping, with the local authority now in talks with private contractors who could help curb the problem by bringing litter wardens back into the city. Councillor Laura Robertson-Collins told the BBC the proposed litter fine increase would strike a "good balance between deterrent and punishment", with the council's cabinet expected to sign off on a deal with a contractor in June.

Solon Papadopoulos, producer of three films by the late Terence Davies, told The Post he is trying to fund an event to commemorate what would have been the director’s 80th birthday. Davies, born 10th November in Kensington, Liverpool, died in 2023. Although events to celebrate the filmmaker in London and Manchester have been earmarked for Davies’ November birth date, Papadopoulos says interest and financing for an equivalent retrospective in Davies’ home city have not been forthcoming. “It would be great to have it on Merseyside,” Papadopoulos told The Post. “You know — his home, his birthplace. But we've been constantly frustrated.” Through his company Hurricane Films, Papadopoulos was a major contributor to Davies’ late career, producing Sunset Song, A Quiet Passion, and his elegiac documentary about Liverpool, Of Time and the City, and told The Post Davies was a “completely gifted and visionary filmmaker.” Davies’ lack of recognition in Liverpool was the subject of Laurence’s 2024 Post début, which you can read here. 

A doctor who groomed and sexually harassed both patients and colleagues for over a decade has now been banned from the profession. Dr Daman Sharma treated patients at numerous hospitals across Merseyside, with a recent tribunal finding 34 allegations and over 100 complaints about his behaviour. In one case, during an examination at Alder Hey in 2014, he is alleged to have lifted up an underage girl's top before sliding his hand under her leggings, saying “we're going to have to get you some sausages to eat”. At the time, the girl was being treated for an eating disorder and had been referred to mental health services because she was harming herself. In another case, while working at Aintree Hospital in 2021, he asked a member of staff if she was pregnant and if she was having unprotected sex. When she replied that she wasn't pregnant, he allegedly told her that her boyfriend “wasn't doing it right”. In a reflective statement at the tribunal hearing, Dr Sharma said “what I say can be interpreted in a way that was not intended,” adding: “I think that sometimes as English is not my first language when I am trying to put the patient at ease by saying something in a more light-hearted way this can come across as ill-judged and sometimes inappropriate.” The tribunal concluded that Dr Sharma's behaviour constituted grooming and was predatory, and he has now been struck off.

And a new Archbishop of Liverpool has been appointed by the Pope. John Sherrington has been selected to succeed Rt Rev Malcolm McMahon OP, who had been in the position for over a decade. He submitted his resignation last summer at the age of 75, which is when most bishops are expected to retire. Speaking to the BBC, Sherrington said he was looking forward “to serving as shepherd of the historic and faith-filled church in the Archdiocese of Liverpool which is rich in its heritage of the English martyrs, Irish immigration, and now looks to the future”. 

Post Picks

📖Author Ian Leslie heads to Waterstones tomorrow for the launch of his new book, John & Paul – A Love Story In Songs. BBC Radio 6 presenter Chris Hawkins will be hosting a Q&A with Leslie, followed by a book signing. Details here.

🎨On Wednesday, Sub Rosa is hosting a graffiti art class from 11am to 1pm. A graffiti artist will teach you all the basics you need, before you’re given a chance to create your own poster to take home. Details here.

🍲On Saturday, Ullet Road Church is hosting a Pierogi and Pickle Feast from 6pm. Expect plenty of delicious food and live music from 6pm to 11pm. Tickets are available here.

🦇Or why not try an evening stroll over at Lunt Meadows for the Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s bat walk? An expert will introduce you to plenty of nocturnal creatures, with a free hot drink and biscuits provided. Details here.

Recommended reads

This one’s more of a recommended listen: Jimmy McGann was one of the soot-covered coal-trimmers who toiled in excruciating heat, shovelling coal into furnaces that powered the mighty Titanic – and although he survived the ship’s sinking, he died a few years later from pneumonia.

Now two of his great-nephews, Liverpudlian actors Paul and Stephen McGann, will tell his story in a BBC /Noiser podcast series, Titanic: Ship of Dreams. Tune in from 8 April.