Scottish Grand National tragedy as Macdermott and The Kniphand die in Ayr race | Racing | Sport

Scottish Grand National horses Macdermott and The Kniphand both passed away after failing to finish the race. Macdermott, who won the event last year, pulled up before the race had come to an end, with The Kniphand falling in the closing stages.

The Scottish Grand National went ahead on Saturday afternoon, with Olympic Man going off as the 15/2 favourite. The race was eventually won by 9/1 prospect Captain Cody, who is trained by Willie Mullins and was ridden by Harry Cobden. Klarc Kent finished second ahead of Our Power in third, with Grozni, Rock My Way and Flash De Touzaine also finishing in the top six. But the afternoon turned sour following news of the two deaths.

Racing TV broke the news on their X (formerly Twitter) page and expressed their sorrow as they wrote: “Heartbreaking news. We sadly lost both Macdermott & The Kniphand at Ayr. Our thoughts are with connections.”

ITV Racing also paid their respects to the horses as they penned: “We are sad to report that after the Scottish Grand National, both MacDermott and The Kniphand have passed away following the race. Our thoughts and condolences are with the connections of both horses.”

Tributes to the two horses poured in on social media after the deaths were announced, with some people taking aim at the sport following the tragedy.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that jockey Harry Atkins had sustained a knee injury after falling on 28/1 shot Snipe and had been stood down for the day.

Winning jockey Cobden was quizzed by Racing TV about his victory before the two deaths had been announced.

And the 26-year-old explained: “I just wanted to get him settled early and creep him into the race.

“He got into a lovely rhythm. I wanted to go wide because obviously he hasn’t had too many runs over fences. You’re better going wide getting into a rhythm than you are in the scrum of it and missing fences.

“It couldn’t have gone any better on the way round and when you ride for Willie Mullins, it’s easy isn’t it.”

Mullins, who also trains the runner-up, then explained: “The two horses ran unbelievable races. Two very good jumpers and two very good stayers.

“There are very few races over these distances so they don’t get much time to show off how good they are. Harry gave it a very cool ride.”

He added: “Today we were having a dreadful day until the last. At least in the big race they came right.”