Grand Annual 2018

[Middle_Of_March]

I do agree with what you've said Kev and personally take a lot of criticism from my social circle for the game I love.

However I can say that news of NHH, Dresden, Some Plan and any other horse losing their life honestly gives me a deep level of upset. People say to me that I only care because they can't win me any more money and that couldn't be further from the truth. While yes a horse winning me money binds me to that horse, it is more than that, so much more. The character of each animal can make you grow such an attachment - Might Bite's quirkiness, Many Clouds' tenacity to "run through a wall for you" aswell as many others.

Yes, the fact is that those 3 horses would still be with us if they hadn't raced today, however if it wasn't for racing they wouldn't have been bred in the first place. While that doesn't mean we can turn a blind eye and not care what happens, we have to remember that these horses recieve care of the upmost quality, often better care than many humans recieve.

'Outsiders' of the game and industry percieve us as careless gamblers who couldn't care what happens but you follow the game and see the emotion of connections when they get bad news and that shows you what you need to know. At trials day when the news was announced that Many Clouds had suffered a fatal injury, I witnessed grown men reduced to tears because of losing what they saw as part of their life. We grow an attachment to these animals that people never realise or comprehend.

Well said Ryan. I agree with every single word of that.