An emotional groom Amy Morrissey was seen wiping away tears after leading Impaire Et Passe from the Aintree racecourse following a fall on the opening day of the Grand National Festival. The horse came down at the penultimate fence in the 2.55pm Grade One Racing Welfare Bowl Chase, which saw favourite Jango Baie claim victory.

Both the eight-year-old horse and twice Grand National-winning jockey Paul Townend emerged unscathed from the incident, with Townend anticipated to resume riding duties on the second day on Merseyside for Ladies Day. The Irish rider will be aiming to join an exclusive club of Aintree champions on Saturday when he returns aboard 2024 victor, and last year's runner-up, I Am Maximus. ITV cameras captured the groom tearfully escorting the fallen horse from the track.

ITV Racing presenter Ed Chamberlin said: "These grooms just love their horses. Isn't that a welcome sight? Impaire Et Passe is absolutely OK.

"What a relief for Amy Morrisey there, in floods of tears. She's got her boy back and he is OK thank goodness. He was travelling pretty well still, wasn't he, AP [McCoy]?"

McCoy said: "He was going to make a race of it, that's for sure." The contest was won by Jango Baie, partnered by Nico de Boinville for trainer Nicky Henderson. Winning rider De Boinville, who himself was on the deck earlier in the day when unseated from Lulamba in the Grade One Manifesto Novices' Chase, said: "He really came for me at the second-last and put the race to bed. I'm absolutely delighted with him and it's all down to the team at home."

Favourites Jango Baie, Barton Snow and Brighterdaysahead all claimed successive victories, delivering a significant boost for punters on the opening day at Aintree. As with all sports, horse racing carries inherent risks, yet The Jockey Club - which owns 15 racecourses across the UK and organises both the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals - is committed to continually reducing those risks at its events.

Their figures reveal that at the Grand National, the average number of fallers has dropped by half throughout the race's history, while the 10-year fatality rate has fallen by more than a third. Since 2000, the racing industry has ploughed over £63 million into equine welfare, encompassing veterinary science, education and research.

At Aintree alone, improvements include: replacing the timber central frame of fences with more forgiving plastic cores, levelling the landing side of certain fences including Becher's Brook, a £400k investment in Aintree's watering system, reducing the maximum field size from 40 to 34 and implementing stricter qualification criteria and veterinary checks. British racing operates under an independently-chaired Horse Welfare Board, whose long-term strategic blueprint 'A Life Well Lived' is already producing tangible outcomes. The racing industry routinely collaborates with respected welfare bodies including World Horse Welfare, the RSPCA and Blue Cross to guarantee it consistently upholds the most rigorous standards.