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RSPCA urges 'comprehensive review' into Cheltenham fatalities

My view fwiw. It is definitely worth reviewing and I think reducing the field size of the Grand Annual may help.

Cheltenham have moved the positioning of the fences in the past to help reduce the risk but it is impossible to remove the risk completely.

If they start changing the height or removing some of the obstacles at Cheltenham then I think it is going too far and will be a nail in the coffin of NH racing.
 
ryanh97 said:
I agree OV completely. I don't believe that the sport is intrinsically cruel either, far from it. But as a member of the younger generation I can tell you that view is not going away, infact it is only on the increase. And that is in my view the biggest issue facing the future of racing.
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That's exactly my feeling. I came back from the Festival and some friends came round on Thursday who I knew had absolutely no interest in racing. What they did know were that 2 horses died on the Tuesday. Social media in particular is raising awareness of this issue, and I think it's in the sport's interest to start leading on this rather than wait for the external pressure which is only going to grow.
 
Rhinestone_Cowboy said:
That's exactly my feeling. I came back from the Festival and some friends came round on Thursday who I knew had absolutely no interest in racing. What they did know were that 2 horses died on the Tuesday. Social media in particular is raising awareness of this issue, and I think it's in the sport's interest to start leading on this rather than wait for the external pressure which is only going to grow.
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Couldn't agree more RC. I think it would be much better for the sport to be proactive rather than reactive.
 
One thing I would like to see, and I don't just mean at Cheltenham but across racing as a whole is the dismounting of horses after a race. They have already run their a***s off for you, get off them and give them a breather...immediately.

I watched some jockeys all smiles and grins on board their winning mounts and the horse looked absolutely shattered, all of their congratulatory BS, this includes Richard Johnson on Native River! Check the replay if you don't believe me, horse is bowing its head and Johnson is getting handshakes, just get off and celebrate!

I'm not saying this will help the survival of more horses in any way, but it certainly doesn't help after tough races to have some human still on them. Patrick Mullins got straight off Rathvinden after the 4 miler, and more should just do it automatically IMO.
 
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It came up from a non racing fan at work today about putting the horses down.

I wasn't defending it, but I had my stock answers about them being born and bred to race (and therefore wouldn't exist without the racing), that horses who break limbs get put down whether racing or not because they don't realise they shouldn't put their weight on it as it heals, that horses continue to jump around jockey-less because they enjoy it and you can't "make" a horse do anything it doesn't want to... but I can tell it was falling on deaf ears.

Still, she won £150 from my throw-away text "tips" each morning so was happy enough during the week.... that bit wasn't mentioned
 
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