Six horses killed at this week's Cheltenham "Festival"....

Four of them today. Hang your heads in shame all you racegoers.

 

What a shame. I've got a cauliflowered ear listening to family moaning about the fact
that ITV devoted their entire afternoon programme to the Cheltenham Festival.
It would be better, if like BBC, they had a red button service, but they gave that up some years ago.
That way , their viewers could make a choice as to what to watch. I am a keen viewer of all sports, but have to admit
I don't watch WWF Wrestling, American football or Horse Racing.

 

Dying giving there all

 

They’ve lived like animal royalty all their lives, regular health checks, fitness workouts every day, food shelter and fresh water for drinking and washing every day, as well as care and attention. it’s blowing a gale, snowing, raining and all three at the same time tonight in Barnsley, and theirs a bloke risking his life sleeping in old Maceies doorway, what’s happened to these horses is really sad, but what’s happening to some humans is even sadder. You may find horse racing barbaric, but these animals have lived better lives than some humans because of it.

 

I'm sure we can get more horses.

 

Very weird argument, animal cruelty is excused because of something entirely unrelated. I assume you’ve been out last night doing something to help the homeless since you feel so strongly about it?

 

Can you mention a worse act of animal cruelty than a human whipping you until you run to your death?

 

Have a quick look back over his posting history and you will realise he's be of the many WUMs and trolls that have appeared n here in the past few months.

 

Forcing dogs to fight for money?

The death of 6 horses this week is utterly tragic, I'll gladly debate with you about it this evening but I'm off to watch us lose 0-2.

 

I’m not sure I see racing as animal cruelty.

Wild horses trip and break their legs and die in pain in other parts of the world.

Domesticated horses here and elsewhere trip and fall and end being destroyed in stables paddocks and the like. Having never ran a race. And having lived in cramped stables on low quality food with cheap or no veterinary care and grooming.

Racing with its regulations, experienced and caring personnel and money creates the very best living conditions any horse on the planet will have. The only horses that race are the ones that want to do so - whip all you like but a horse that doesn’t want to race another won’t do it.

They are bred to do it so wouldn’t exist without racing, if they banned racing today there’d be thousands of horses at the pedigree chum and uhu factories tomorrow, they couldn’t rehouse them all. Those that were kept would still need riding out, running and jumping every day to maintain their health.

I’m not a huge racing fan, not a fan at all I don’t follow it much, I have a bet on the grand National, other races when our lass has a tip on big races like at cheltenham maybe, (works in a bookies), the bookies only tend to get money off me regularly on football though.

The mortality rate of horses in racing doesn’t look to be any higher than in any other horse based pursuit - probably lower.

Animals are bred to work in all sorts of situations. Racing is not really any more or less cruel than most of them. It is certainly arguably less cruel than an animal being bred to kill and eat - and I’m no vegetarian. I’d be hypocritical to take issue with racing.

Use of the whip is severely restricted, they have reduced the height and number of fences in races. They get the best treatment and are loved but have to race in return.

It is dangerous - no doubt. But I don’t see it as cruel myself. It’s less cruel than the prospects they’d have if it was banned. You’d also never stop it. It would be done ‘underground’ without professionalism and regulation if it was banned. Turn into a pursuit like badger baiting or dog fighting.

 

I have and do enjoy a bet on the horses but as time has gone on I've become more uneasy about this side of things and seeing Sandsend's terrible injury and then hearing that 3 horses died in the final race does give me cause to reflect on jump racing in particular. They highlighted on the TV yesterday how much the course was churning up after 28 races on already heavy ground and in hindsight I wonder if the review will conclude that to have been a factor. As @troff posted, efforts have been made to make the sport safer but the question has to be asked, do they go far enough? A complete ban seems unlikely and IMHO unwarranted but maybe there's a sustainable middle ground? Hands and heels racing, perhaps?

 

They are racehorses, they are bred for that purpose only it’s in there blood lines to want to race
They wouldn’t have been born in the first place if that was not the case.
Just as other animals
Are born and die or then killed for there purpose of food, eggs , milk , plastic bags, shampoo ,soap ,perfume , beer ,toothpaste, wine, bagels, condoms ,cake , crayons ,computers , tyres
The list is endless
Guess if you don’t bother with any of those , you are entitled to that opinion

 

I’d support that. Don’t see the necessity of the whip - let them run and if the jockey had both hands on the reins and not also trying to whip they might be a slight bit less likely to fall, maybe not.

I don’t think the three fatalities on the last race would have been avoided in that regard - I think they need to think more about restricting racing on heavy and churned ground. If the ground was so bad they could easily have considered abandoning the card after the gold cup - if the four horses lost after that were at least in part due to the ground being too soft and churned, this should be looked at in the future. I suppose bigger racing fans than me wouldn’t want races called off though. I have to admit it makes little difference to me as I rarely dabble on racing other than the national and other bits and pieces as I’ve said. Not my game.

I don’t want racing banned but any safety improvements for horses and rider’s safety should be implemented, no doubt.

 

The whips are made of foam. They couldn't hurt anybody, especially not a half ton or whatever it is animal. Whips were changed quite rightly years ago, because the leather ones back in the Pat Eddery days were cruel.

 

It’s still a tool to cajole them to their doom

 

An half ton animal isn't going to be bullied by a 8-9 stone guy who's around 5 and a half ft, hitting it with foam. They run because they want to. When they don't they play up at the start. They are bright creatures.

 

Just like foxes enjoy being chased by a pack of hounds..!!

 

It is one of the three charities I give to on a monthly basis, but no I don’t have the time to actively help. It’s not animal cruelty so it doesn’t need excusing.

 

It’s a tool to correct them so they don’t get into more danger too.

 

That's an incredible post.

Some of the more sensible posts on the subject make some interesting points - namely racing on horribly soft ground. Places such as Haydock, Ffos Las and Newcastle can get ridiculously heavy in winter and it is not a pretty sight to watch horses slog round over 3 miles plus.

The whip is a subject of much debate. It's a light foam object that is part of the jockeys equipment more through habit rather than necessity. It probably should be banned, but some areas of horse racing governance is stuck in the past and has struggled to move into the 21st century. Does it hurt the horse? No. Does it look pretty when a jockey uses it? Also no.

What I would ask you is this though. When a horse falls in a race what happens? Does it immediately pack up and go home because it hates running? Or does it carry on running because it enjoys doing so?