Further criticisms were raised by some of the riders in the race itself that amateur rider David Pitcher had been allowed to take part at all. Pitcher, who had only a few years riding experience, had set off in an alarming manner on board his mount Brown Trix, diving the horse alarmingly at the third fence in particular. The criticism was heightened by the fact that Brown Trix was one of the two horses to suffer fatal falls. On viewing a playback of the race, champion jockey Peter Scudamore was scathing in his criticism when he stated "I like David Pitcher. He's a nice man and as a person I've got a lot of time for him. But, in my view, he had no right to ride in the Grand National.... He's a bad tactician and, as far as I could see, he had no race plans. He just rode like a maniac down over those first three or four fences and, to me, that's not fearless. It's brainless. He rides a horse like he's swinging from the heels against West Indian fast-bowling."221: Peter Scudamore's Record Season 1989 by Dudley Doust, 1989 Pitcher did not help his cause by stating "What could the best jockey in the world do about his horse falling back into the ditch? In National Hunt racing, you learn to live with dead horses."
