Mr Incredible has been barred from running in Saturday’s Grand National by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA).
The horse, trained in Scotland by Sandy Thomson, was an outsider for the 34-runner race at Aintree.
Mr Incredible was due to realise a long-term ambition of his owner, Winter Olympian James Manclark, to have a runner in the Grand National.
But he has not completed a race since March 2024 and has refused to race or pulled up in his last four runs.
“I am desperately frustrated, annoyed and sad”, said Scottish trainer Thomson.
A BHA statement said: “Each horse entered to take part in any race over the Grand National fences must undergo a review by the National Fence Review Panel, a highly experienced group including former jockeys, veterinarians, clerks of the course and stewards who carefully consider each horse’s suitability to take part.
” The panel carefully assesses each horse’s ability, fitness, recent form and overall readiness for its intended race and works closely with connections of any horse about which it has concerns before a decision on its participation is reached. “
It is understood this is not an isolated case, with six horses not running in last year’s race due to concerns raised by the panel.
Racing’s ruling body intervened in recent days, questioning whether Mr Incredible showed sufficient form during a recent race at Kelso, when he started but pulled up, even though connections had been pleased with the horse’s performance.
For the past seven weeks the horse therapist Freddy Steele had been working with Mr Incredible.
He told BBC Sport the horse was showing” progress “at home and on the racecourse, and was responding well to the use of” natural horsemanship “techniques.
Mr Incredible’s behaviour at Kelso was referred to the BHA by the stewards, who said he was” unruly “and appeared to pull himself up after the 14th fence.
The nine-year-old has won two of his 16 races and finished second four times.
But he has been pulled up in three of his past four contests and refused to race on the other occasion.
Despite his unpredictable behaviour, Mr Incredible was runner-up in the Midlands Grand National last year when based with Irish champion trainer Willie Mullins.
He was considered one of the leading contenders for the 2024 National and was sent off at odds of 10-1 but dwelt at the start and unseated rider Brian Hayes at The Chair.
Mr Incredible had also unseated Hayes in the race 12 months earlier at the 24th fence after his saddle slipped.
” It was 100% the BHA’s decision. We appealed it. Their concern was that he would disrupt the start, “said Thomson.
” My defence was that he has never disrupted any start. Having got him started at Kelso I saw no reason why he wouldn’t start in the Grand National, and having more horses around him would have helped.
“The other thing they said was about his recent form, but their criteria said they would take into account the last six runs and that included second in the Midlands National. It was a totally unsatisfactory situation”.
The horse switched stables to join Thomson in December.
Aintree Racecourse Location: Saturday, April 5, 2019 12:00 BST
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has forbade Mr. Incredible from competing in Saturday’s Grand National, according to his trainer Sandy Thomson.
For the 34-runner race at Aintree, the horse was an outsider.
Mr. Incredible was scheduled to realize his owner’s long-term goal of competing in the Grand National, Winter Olympian James Manclark.
He hasn’t run a race since March 2024 and has only given up or pulled up once during his previous four starts.
According to Scottish trainer Thomson, “I am utterly frustrated, irritated, and sad.”
The National Fence Review Panel, a highly skilled group of former jockeys, veterinarians, course clerks, and stewards who carefully consider each horse’s suitability for participation, must evaluate each horse before entering any race over the Grand National fences, according to a BHA statement.
Before making a decision on whether to participate, the panel carefully evaluates each horse’s ability, fitness, recent form, and overall readiness for its intended race. It also closely collaborates with any connections that may be concerned.
Even though connections had been pleased with the horse’s performance, the racing’s ruling body questioned whether Mr. Incredible had sufficient form when he started but pulled up in a recent race at Kelso.
Freddy Steele, a horse therapist, has been working with Mr. Incredible for the past seven weeks.
He claimed to be showing “progress” both at home and on the track, and that he was using “natural horsemanship” techniques effectively.
The stewards addressed Mr. Incredible’s behavior to the BHA, who claimed he was “unruly” and appeared to pull himself up after the 14th fence.
The nine-year-old has finished second in four of his 16 races.
However, he has already lost three of his previous four races and has turned down the other one.
Mr. Incredible competed alongside Irish champion trainer Willie Mullins in the Midlands Grand National last year despite his unpredictable behavior.
He was regarded as one of the top 2024 National contenders, and he faced a 10-1 penalty at the start against unseated rider Brian Hayes.
Hayes was also unseated by Mr. Incredible at the 24th fence after his saddle slipped, 12 months prior.
” It was 100% the BHA’s decision. We filed an appeal. They worried that he might disrupt the beginning, Thomson said.
He has never interfered with any start, in my opinion. I could not see why he wouldn’t have entered the Grand National without his Kelso start, and having more horses nearby would have helped.
“His recent form was another thing they said, but their criteria said they would take into account his last six runs, which included second in the Midlands National. It was a “completely unsatisfaction” situation.
In December, the horse left his stables to join Thomson.
Venue: Aintree Racecourse Date: Saturday, 5 April Time: 16:00 BST
Mr Incredible has been barred from running in Saturday’s Grand National by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), says his trainer Sandy Thomson.
The horse was an outsider for the 34-runner race at Aintree.
Mr Incredible was due to realise a long-term ambition of his owner, Winter Olympian James Manclark, to have a runner in the Grand National.
But he has not completed a race since March 2024 and has refused to race or pulled up in his last four runs.
“I am desperately frustrated, annoyed and sad,” said Scottish trainer Thomson.
A BHA statement said: “Each horse entered to take part in any race over the Grand National fences must undergo a review by the National Fence Review Panel, a highly experienced group including former jockeys, veterinarians, clerks of the course and stewards who carefully consider each horse’s suitability to take part.
“The panel carefully assesses each horse’s ability, fitness, recent form and overall readiness for its intended race and works closely with connections of any horse about which it has concerns before a decision on its participation is reached.”
Racing’s ruling body intervened in recent days, questioning whether Mr Incredible showed sufficient form during a recent race at Kelso, when he started but pulled up, even though connections had been pleased with the horse’s performance.
For the past seven weeks the horse therapist Freddy Steele had been working with Mr Incredible.
He told BBC Sport the horse was showing “progress” at home and on the racecourse, and was responding well to the use of “natural horsemanship” techniques.
Mr Incredible’s behaviour at Kelso was referred to the BHA by the stewards, who said he was “unruly” and appeared to pull himself up after the 14th fence.
The nine-year-old has won two of his 16 races and finished second four times.
But he has been pulled up in three of his past four contests and refused to race on the other occasion.
Despite his unpredictable behaviour, Mr Incredible was runner-up in the Midlands Grand National last year when based with Irish champion trainer Willie Mullins.
He was considered one of the leading contenders for the 2024 National and was sent off at odds of 10-1 but dwelt at the start and unseated rider Brian Hayes at The Chair.
Mr Incredible had also unseated Hayes in the race 12 months earlier at the 24th fence after his saddle slipped.
“It was 100% the BHA’s decision. We appealed it. Their concern was that he would disrupt the start,” said Thomson.
“My defence was that he has never disrupted any start. Having got him started at Kelso I saw no reason why he wouldn’t start in the Grand National, and having more horses around him would have helped.
“The other thing they said was about his recent form, but their criteria said they would take into account the last six runs and that included second in the Midlands National. It was a totally unsatisfactory situation.”
The horse switched stables to join Thomson in December.
Governor Ademola Adeleke has warned of stern state action against traditional rulers of Ifon, Erin Osun and Ilobu communities if they fail to sustain current peace and de-escalation of the crisis in their communities.
The Governor issued the warning against the backdrop of online reports that some faceless groups across the conflict areas are planning another round of attacks.
“In the midst of Sallah celebrations, I got reports of some people planning another round of conflict around Ifon, Ilobu and Erin Osun towns. The security agencies have tightened surveillance to ensure no attacks take place”, Governor Adeleke was quoted to have said in a statement signed by his spokesperson Olawale Rasheed on Monday.
“The security agencies are also speeding up the interrogation of key chieftains and actors in the conflict. I will remind top leaders of the towns that the peace undertaking they are signing are not for joke. They will be held accountable. There will be accountability before the law.
” The curfew we relaxed was on humanitarian grounds. As a compassionate government, we know many innocent people are suffering because of the evil agenda of a few elements across the conflict areas. Any attempt to exploit the adjustment of the curfew for renewed violence will be met with full re-imposition of the 24-hour curfew.
Due to her embezzlement of EU funds, the party’s far-right leader in France, Marine Le Pen, will not be able to run for president until the next presidential election after serving four years in prison and prohibited from running for office for five years.
Last summer, Kateryna Zarembo gave up an academic career in political science to volunteer as a paramedic on Ukraine’s front lines.
She served in rotations lasting two or four weeks, allowing her time to raise her four children aged three to 12. Weeks after United States President Donald Trump’s inauguration, she decided to enlist.
“I think what Donald Trump is doing right now is not just retreating from Europe. It is actually, possibly harming Ukraine in the battle against Russia. It is actually creating an autocracy in real time,” she said.
Kateryna Zarembo is worried that US President Donald Trump’s policies on Ukraine will further imperil the country [Courtesy: Kateryna Zarembo]
It was, for Zarembo, a “reminder of our absolutely, existentially crucial self-reliance”.
“I was thinking, the future of Ukraine is in the hands of Ukraine’s army, and that’s why I have to be part of the professional community, not just a volunteer,” she told Al Jazeera.
Zarembo’s Hospitallers Medical Battalion, which gives the wounded their first pre-hospital treatment a few kilometres from the line of contact, and evacuates them, consists mostly of women and is an example of how they are playing a growing role in Ukraine’s defence.
Women in Ukraine’s 900,000-strong armed forces have climbed from 52,000 at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, more than three years ago, to more than 70,000 today.
More than 20,000 are in combat roles, and 5,500 are fighting in the trenches.
“We don’t have compulsory conscription for women. All joined voluntarily for different reasons,” parliamentarian Yevheniia Kravchuk told Al Jazeera. “Some come from military families. I know one who stepped in after her father was killed and others do it for a brother killed, for revenge.”
Zarembo’s family demonstrates how the war is gradually consuming all of Ukrainian society.
Her husband is now a military technology contractor to the government.
Yevheniia Kravchuk, a politician, said some women step in on the front lines ‘for revenge’ for their killed male relatives [Courtesy: Yevheniia Kravchuk]
Her children understand there is always the danger a Russian drone could slip past electronic jammers to where Zarembo treats wounded soldiers.
“Those who are smaller, the three- and five-year-olds, they just cling to my legs, and don’t want to hear about [my] going,” she said. “And the bigger ones who understand more, they worry and they say that they will miss me, and also kind of protest in their own way.”
The Orobets household’s perspective on the future is similarly transformed.
Lesya Orobets’ husband is fighting on the front lines, leaving her to run the family engineering business.
“His salary we donated to his regiment, to his cause,” she explained to Al Jazeera.
During a leave of absence a few months ago, the parents gathered their two teenage daughters around the kitchen table.
“We were discussing their future professions, and we came up with the suggestion that besides a civilian profession everyone should choose for themselves, they also need to have some military skills, depending on their talents and their interest,” Orobets said.
Lesia Orobets has told her teenage daughters they ‘need’ to have military skills, amid fears of increased conflicts in the future [Courtesy: Lesia Orobets]
“It looks like the future decade would probably be the decade of wars. And in order to be able to protect your country and yourself, you have to be useful no matter the gender.”
Both girls have been learning how to shoot from an early age. The eldest is thinking of becoming an aerospace engineer.
A decade ago, she would not have been able to do that.
Official records show that when Russia annexed Crimea and sent troops into eastern Ukraine in 2014, women played only supporting roles.
“In 2014 … women who wanted to take combat positions as snipers and [operating] grenade launchers could not officially hold these positions, so they were put down as cooks and medics but were actually doing the combat role,” said Kravchuk, the parliamentarian. “They called themselves ‘the invisible battalion’. It took years to change that.”
In 2017, women were made eligible for combat roles and all ranks of the military, elevating them above menial tasks that carried the lowest pay, rank and status.
“That was not just opening new opportunities for women, but naming them by … posts they were actually fulfilling,” said Orobets.
Olena Tregub is the head of Ukraine’s Anticorruption Commission [Courtesy: Olena Tregub]
Days before Russia’s full-scale invasion began, the parliament, Verkhovna Rada, expanded the list of professions whose female employees had to register with the armed forces for possible conscription. A thousand women enlisted immediately.
Today, women serve as snipers, drone operators, fighter pilots, and artillery operators, in special operations and in air defence. Some 1,500 have received medals. Five have received the highest honour, the Hero of Ukraine medal.
The recognition has led to changing perceptions of women’s roles.
On November 17, Nataliya Grabarchuk became an overnight hero when, on her first day as an anti-aircraft gunner, she destroyed a Russian cruise missile using a Man-Portable Air Defence System (MANPADS).
Orobets founded The Price of Freedom, an NGO that designed Sky Shield, a proposed air defence umbrella for Ukraine enlisting Ukrainian and European air forces.
Women’s growing role in intelligence, national security and defence has also been accompanied by their growing role in governance, said Olena Tregub, the head of Ukraine’s Anticorruption Commission.
She rattled off a list of transparency bodies headed by women – including the Military Ombudsman, the anticorruption task force within the Ministry of Defence, and the Ministry of Strategic Industries responsible for defence production.
“All these women came during war,” Tregub said, and were helping direct resources where they needed to go.
Women also became the visible international advocates for weapons and financial aid at the request of former commander in chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, because conscription for them was voluntary and they were allowed to leave the country, said Tregub.
Women have also shouldered a growing burden in keeping the economy afloat.
The government pays to re-qualify women in a list of professions like truck drivers, tractor drivers, trolley drivers, and anything connected to construction such as electrical and plumbing work, said Kravchuk.
Last year, women qualified for 61 percent of loans to open small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine, and established 59 percent of them.
Women’s advance in all these roles is connected to the perception that all of society is at stake.
“We fight against our children being deported to Russia and being raised as Russians, and we fight against our women being raped and killed. And of course, against everyone being killed,” said Zarembo, referring respectively to Ukrainian allegations of the forcible transfer of children to Russia without familial consent and of Moscow’s forces committing sexual assault and other war crimes.
