Racing zebra to run in Grand National
Horse racing officials have announced that a zebra will be allowed to compete in this weekend’s Grand National. Barcode Boy will become the first non-horse to jump the fences in the legendary race’s 170-year history after arriving in the UK from a secret Middle Eastern training camp.
The four-year-old Zambian-born colt, owned by super-rich horse racing-obsessed Yemeni Sheikh Al-Obama, was immediately installed among the favourites at 11-1 in a move that has stunned the conservative world of horse racing.
Al-Obama – recently linked with a proposed Middle Eastern takeover bid for English Premier League strugglers Newcastle United – has long argued that allowing other equine species to compete on an equal “hoofing” would broaden the sport’s appeal.
While traditionalists remain to be convinced, last week’s verdict by the European Court of Animal Rights in Strasbourg removed the last legal obstacles to Barcode Boy’s participation at Aintree.
Though a Jockey Club appeal is due to be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in June, that will come too late to prevent the zebra going under starter’s orders this weekend.
“Great news for any viewers planning to watch the race on an old black and white television,” BBC racing presenter Clare Balding wrote on her Twitter blog. “If he gets over Becher’s Brook the rest of the field is going to have a job keeping up.”
Rumours of a stable of genetically-enhanced racing zebras capable of outpacing the world’s best horses have long swirled around the paddocks of the racing industry but most insiders had dismissed the stories as apocryphal.
Al-Obama is alleged to have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on DNA samples from previous Grand National and Kentucky Derby winners, hiring top sporting geneticists to bolster the zebras’ natural advantages of speed and agility. The animals are then raced against tame cheetahs to improve their competitive sharpness.
Barcode Boy is understood to have emerged as the stable’s best prospect after convincingly beating the Aga Khan’s top race horse, Zarkava, on Al-Obama’s private racecourse in a head-to-head contest that carried a prize pot worth $50 million.
“From what I’ve seen of him, he’s definitely in with a chance,” said Barcode Boy’s jockey, Fintan Mahoney, who will wear matching black and white colours on Saturday. “He certainly has the go faster stripes to win.”