Becher's Brook is a fence jumped during the Grand National horse race at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool, England. It is negotiated twice during the race - as the sixth fence, and the twenty-second fence. The fence took its name from Captain Becher, who fell there from his mount Conrad in the first Aintree Grand National in 1839, and who sheltered in the small brook running along the landing side of the fence while the remainder of the field thundered over. It has always been a notorious and controversial obstacle during this most severe of sporting events. Following the deaths of two horses, Brown Trix and Seeandem, at the fence during the 1989 Grand National won by Little Polveir, the course executive bowed to public pressure and leveled off a tricky backward slope on the landing side of the fence to remove a hidden trap that had caused many horses to fall. At the same time they also removed the water from the brook as there was a risk that a fallen horse could drown.
