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Horses and their jockeys continued racing despite frantic attempts to stop them

England have

The Grand National has ended in chaos after a series of events at the start which reduced the world-famous horse race to a shambles.

An estimated 300 million people aruond the world were watching the race, held at the Aintree racecourse in Liverpool, live on television, when 30 of the 39 riders failed to realise a false start had been called and set off around the racetrack.

The Jockey Club was forced to declare the race void after several riders completed both laps of the gruelling 30-obstacle course and passed the finish line before they realised their mistake.

Aintree has said it is unlikely the race will be re-run, and bookmakers are faced with repaying the 5 million in bets placed on the race.

False starts

The disastrous sequence of events began seconds before the race was due to start, when protestors got onto the track near the first fence.

They were spotted, and after a delay, the race officials asked horses and riders to line up again.

Then there were two false starts caused by horses getting tangled up with the starting tape. On the second false start, the recall flag, which signals riders to pull up once they have started, was not waved, and all but nine riders raced away.

The recall man, Ken Evans, is being interviewed by stewards to find out why he did not wave his flag.

Frantic shouting

The crowd shoutedfranticallyat the jockeys to get them to stop, and officials tried desperately to flag them down from the side of the track, but without success.

In the end, 11 riders had completed the first circuit before pulling up, and seven never realised anything was wrong, racing right to the finish line in the four-and-a-half-mile (7 km) race.

Esha Ness, a 50-1 outsider trained by Jenny Pitman and ridden by John White, crossed the line first. "I could see there were only a few horses around, but I thought the others had fallen or something," White said after the race.

Mrs Pitman, who became the first woman to train a first Grand National winner in 1983 with Corbiere, was devastated.

"This is no Grand National, even though I have won it," she said.

The owner of Esha Ness, Patrick Bancroft, is understood to be considering suing Aintree over the 6,000 prize money for first place.

David Pipe, spokesman for The Jockey Club, said there would be an urgent inquiry into the incident.

The Dark Blues crossed the finishing line in 20 minutes, 23 seconds

The victorious Dark Blues beat Cambridge - also known as the Light Blues - by four-and-a-half lengths despite windy conditions and rough waters along the four-and-a-quarter mile (6.84km) course from Putney to Mortlake.

The Dark Blues, who have won the race just 11 times in the last 38 races, must now be hoping today's victory in a winning time of 20 minutes, 23 seconds, will turn the tide.

The Oxford team began the race in the lead despite a lighter average weight than their rivals (12st 4lbs vs 12st 11lbs).

Surged ahead

They had won the toss and chose to start the race from the Surrey station with Cambridge setting off from the Middlesex station.

It was a close contest until about half way through the race when Oxford surged ahead.

The increasingly rough weather conditions did nothing to dampen the Oxford crew's quest for victory.

By the time the Dark Blues reached the Chiswick steps they were 11 seconds ahead and the result of the race already seemed in little doubt.

For a fleeting moment, off Duke's Meadows, it looked as if Cambridge might make a last dash for victory but Oxford kept them at bay.

Oxford crossed the finish line at 34 strokes per minute after averaging an impressive 30 throughout the race.

frantically: 瘋狂地