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horse samtheman fell at the 3rd last was clearly out of contention and tired so i can see no reason for him to keep going can someone tell me is there a rule that horses have to complete a certain amount of races to keep racing ? i am only guessing there might be to weed out people who cheat i backed samtheman in my opion he gave all he could so i would have had no problem in him pulling up
I’m glad you started this thread I almost started one myself about a horse called "If Ever" trained by Willie Young"
He ran her at Ayr in a very ordinary hurdle and she looked terrified everytime she came to a hurdle. She stutters every time she has to jump and all but stops before ballooning them and has no place on a racecourse.
She did finish 3rd in a poor NH flat race but a blind man running for a bus could see hurdling is not her game.
It’s not like the horse is showing any signs of improvement. She fell at Ayr as I mentioned then after some of the worst hurdling I heave ever seen she was pulled up 5 times on the trot. Young then sent her back to Ayr and after 2 horrific efforts she fell at the 3rd hurdle.
Fortunately she’s as slow as a tortoise so she rarely gets in the way of anything else.
It has got to the stage where her life is at risk every time she steps onto a racecourse not to mention any jockeys who is stupid enough to ride her.
Personally I would like to see Young warned off for cruelty to animals and the horse should be banned from running for it’s own safety
Not sure I’d go as far as banning "Oor Wullie" Young, HGM, for all that If Ever does appear to be a bit of a liability to herself.
The issue is perhaps more why the arm of the BHA’s antecedent set up to identify and censure dodgy jumpers some 20 years or so ago never amounted to more than it did. At least, if it does still exist it is inconspicuous to the point of invisible, and it’s missing a live candidate for intervention in the shape of If Ever.
I can’t entertain any idea that Young’s sending out of If Ever to battle is indicative of a wider regime of cruelty by him towards his animals – absolutely not. His permit-trained string, a mix of homebreds and sub-£1500 purchases from other yards, may be determinedly modest, as a return of 2-117 over the past five seasons will attest to, but they’re anything but unilaterally lethally incompetent.
Those two wins, incidentally, include one £6,000+ prize when Ethans Star took the 2009 renewal of the John Wade Final at Sedgefield – and in one of its deepest renewals ever (7-1 the field), at that.
Not that it’s necessarily strictly relevant, he also gives plenty back to the sport at grassroots level, being the landlord and supremo behind the Point-to-Point course at Overton (current home of both the Dumfriesshire & Stewartry and the Lanarkshire & Renfrewshire & Eglinton meetings).
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
can someone tell me is there a rule that horses have to complete a certain amount of races to keep racing ?
I understand that there has been a non-completion monitoring body in the past, though as with my post above I’m unsure how much power it exerted in the day and whether it’s even still going.
I remember questions were asked about Swiss Comfort back in 2001 after she registered a 13th DNF in 16 races when pulling up at Catterick. Connections did counter, however, that the rider (remember Ben Orde-Powlett?) had defied their instructions by pulling up when the mare was not yet tired, and that presumably made some difference as she was briefly back in action the following autumn (5th in an Ayr chase) before retiring to the paddocks.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
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