MEDDLING WITHOUT BENEFITS

While it may not be wise to dive in throwing opinions around on safety issues when you yourself are not putting oneself in harm’s way, it would surely not be wide of the mark to assume that a majority of jockeys, along with trainers and owners, are against this seasonal dolling off of obstacles that we are now becoming accustomed and which has the affect of changing the nature of some cracking looking events.

Racing has never been more on edge over outside perceptions so there will be plenty of professionals who may have an urge to speak out over what they see as healthy and safety interference, but feel their observations may be construed in the wrong light.

It’s a sad fact that for the anti racing brigade, a situation which compromises the safety of riders is secondary by a very wide margin to any injuries sustained by their mounts. It’s something that produces that righteous nonsense about the riders having a choice, the horses not.

But is there any data that proves that horse and rider are at an increased risk racing into a low sun ?  Fences have clearly marked take off boards which the animals will see until they disappear from their vision on take off. Jockey’s are able to wear tinted sun protective goggles. 

From the top of the head it is difficult to recall a race being lost due to the dazzle of the sun, in fact the only faller I can recall where the sun was blamed was a Jimmy Fitzgerald novice chaser at a weekday Ayr meeting in the late 1980’s, who did albeit take a nasty looking somersault.

What is a turn off for the winter game is spending some time trying to unravel a tricky but impossible not to get involved in event, then to find late on that the animal you supported knowing that he was a safer conveyance than one or two of his dangers would now have his chance reduced. Imagine being on a flawless lepper such as a Dublin Flyer, a Villierstown, a Collingwood or a Panto Prince, then having officialdom invading the course with their cones taking out crucial obstacles that could produce race result changing moments, not necessarily with falls but with momentum creating or busting negotiation of the obstacles.

The other area of the sport that has been marked with health and safety interference is basic horse hydration and cooling. Has veterinary science changed in this field or have there always been different theories adopted ?

Forty years ago your horse would arrive at the racecourse stables and be muzzled at least a couple of hours before a race to prevent any chewing and ingestion of bedding, along with water intake - by christ how simple it really is to stop a horse 

A similar build up would happen now but where things seem to have changed is that back then, I know at least one yard, a classic winning one, who would dab a wet sponge in a blowing horses mouth but not provide a proper drink until the heart rate had slowed, the water being lukewarm in the belief that it would lessen the chances of a bout of colic. Now, the staff seem happy to allow their charges to guzzle down half a bucket of water within minutes of finishing a race. 

And then there is a new intrusion into the Grand National, yet another development that does little to benefit the image of the once great event. The terrestrial coverage of the immediate aftermath of the marathon now has an underlying theme whereby it is pressed into the viewers conscience that the competing animals have a time window by which to reach equine showers.

These animals are athletes who naturally sweat to assist the cooling process. The first quarter of April hardly attracts dangerously high temperatures and while exhausted horses can wobble, this panic infused process brings in an unnecessary extra angle to the welfare issue.

I have witnessed a lady in a workplace on the Monday after the Aintree event, declaring to everyone within earshot that as the runners past the post she was shouting, " Quick, quick - get some water on those horses.Get them straight to the showers!"

If this is now a typical post race reaction, one which replaces a what would have once been normal racing fans desire to watch a replay to see again for themselves how well the horse they backed that came down second Bechers was travelling, whether it be an Andy Pandy, Uncle Merlin or West Tip, then maybe it really is time to put the race to bed, a situation brought around by a self destructive push to change the image of the sport. 

Moreover, an even bigger fear that could irreparably damage the sport on welfare grounds is the wastage issue, one that is surprisingly unknown to the majority of the public. Not surprisingly this -  call it whatever you like whether it be an achilles heel or the sport's dirty secret - area of concern that the financial workings of the sport deem to be a necessary sacrifice is something that has up to now been effectively hidden away from the gaze of the wider public

However, with the monetary fallout from the plague not yet in full flow in the wider world let alone racing, the sport must brace itself for a surge of owners exiting the sport, leaving behind a mass of unwanted thoroughbreds, a crisis in itself that for the first time will not be able to be hidden away and will sully the sport until it is addressed, or the sport radically downsized.

image from pexel.com

The furthest you could remove yourself from cones infront of fences and hurdles. A classy performance from a Russian /German singer who is a household name on the European continent.