Slim Pickings suffers fatal injury The Tom Taaffe trained Slim Pickings has suffered a fatal injury while preparing for another bid at Aintree Grand National. Twice in the frame in the 4m4f race, the gelding will be missing from the list of entries for this year's Aintree spectacular after breaking a leg at the weekend. The ten-year-old's trainer Tom Taaffe said on Tuesday: "Sadly, Slim Pickings has had to be put down. He broke a hind-leg pastern doing a routine canter on the gallops at the weekend. It is the sad side of racing, especially when you consider all the fences he jumped during his career. "I couldn't say anything until today as I had to contact all his owners. I'm very sorry for them and for my staff. We only had the horse for two seasons but he gave us all a couple of great days at Aintree." Slim Pickings finished third behind Silver Birch in the 2007 John Smith's-sponsored Grand National and was fourth behind Comply Or Die last year and was ridden both times by Barry Geraghty.
