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According to John Maxse on twitter no one from the BHA was invited to participate in this discussion, if true that is pretty poor from the BBC who (should) know better.
I haven’t seen this yet (is it on i-player – just so I can get annoyed?) but I have been very disappointed by the BBC’s National coverage.
They seem to have an agenda around promoting the negative aspects of the race, dissapointing as it was an event that’s been very good to them over the years.
Channel 4, on the other hand, have done a great job of promoting it and, it seems, got good audience figures to reward their efforts.
Perhaps there are some at the BBC who watched Channel 4’s handling of the event with a little envy and have the knives out? Just perhaps…
The BBC had this planned clearly in the expectation that there would be horse deaths to discuss. Poor Bob Champion, I watched for 3 mins then had to turn it off.
Programme producers must have been so disappointed at having no dead horses to discuss. Am getting pretty fed up with the BBC and their attitiude to racing. Perhaps they want to detract publicity away from their other recent scandal.
Completely agree with you David. The reporting on the event from the BBC has been very distasteful and unfortunately predictable, I said to a friend when the BBC lost the national they would turn on it.
I saw the last 10 minutes of it by chance and I thought Lawney Hill was brilliant.
‘I’m not here to defend horse racing, I’m here to promote it’
Quite right Lawney!
I find it quite hard to understand the approach of some animal fanatics and where their moral compasses lie in these incidents. I am a self confessed softy when it comes to animals. I don’t eat meat because I can not bring myself to eat it and I have to avoid going to pets at home otherwise I’ll come back with a rabbit I feel sorry for in the adoption centre
I don’t have any conflict in my support for racing however, I’d be interested to know how many people who turn their noes up at the grand national will happily be tucking into their roast dinners today.
Everyone on here knows race horses are given top class care and attention and are well treated. People in racing love their horses generally and that’s why people who work closest with them do it. There are needy people in society who are less well treated than some of these animals. It is important in my eyes there are people who are there to stand up miss treatment of animals and this undoubtedly improves welfare and care of animals but they have their guns pointed in the wrong direction with racing, it is a sport that pumps loads of money into welfare and research and is always striving to do better and do the best by horses.
I tried to watch it on iplayer but had to switch it off. They couldn’t even pronounce the winner’s name, that’s how much research they had done!
Dene Stanstell is an idiot, the fences are not too demanding & as for that female vet……words fail me.
Has anyone seen the "pet horse" Dene Stanstell owns? It looks like an RSPCA cruelty case; appalling.I find it rather disturbing that Animal Aid’s views on animal welfare issues are portrayed as main stream. Given that the BBC has lost coverage of horse racing to Channel 4 the obvious conclusion is that their reaction to the sport is driven by a severe dose of sour grapes.
Animal Aid’s Grand National article started ‘It was a calmer, less deeply distressing race to watch compared with last year. With the ground favouring horses staying on their feet, there were fewer fallers, and less evident exhaustion.’ You can almost hear the exclamation of ‘oh b****r ‘ in the background, particularly given the comment ‘a large number pulled up –
some possibly injured
.’ which smacks of clutching at straws.
It is faintly disturbing that a supposed animal protection organisation seems to welcome the possibility that horses may be injured, with a whiff of hypocrisy about their handling of the subject.
The BBC, once held high as a paragon of accurately and unbiased reporting, now continues its downward spiral as no more than a gossip shop. Pandering to the lowest common denominator?
Rob
When their moral compass swings so easily from shielding Savile to attacking a sport – not a race – the whole sport – maybe it’s time for racing to organise a licence-payment withholding campaign
When their moral compass swings so easily from shielding Savile to attacking a sport – not a race – the whole sport – maybe it’s time for racing to organise a licence-payment withholding campaign
The only thing racing should be organisisng is a media response team of intelligent, quick-witted individuals who can be placed on such shows to vigorously defend it’s reputation and aggressively dismantle it’s opponents’ spurious arguments.
Mike
When their moral compass swings so easily from shielding Savile to attacking a sport – not a race – the whole sport – maybe it’s time for racing to organise a licence-payment withholding campaign
The only thing racing should be organisisng is a media response team of intelligent, quick-witted individuals who can be placed on such shows to vigorously defend it’s reputation and aggressively dismantle it’s opponents’ spurious arguments.
Mike
The trouble is, you cannot speak unless you’re offered the platform. When I tweeted about this show on Friday, Paul Struthers responded, then the host, Nicky Campbell responded to us saying he ‘loved the National’. I suggested he invite Paul on the show today: silence, no further communication. It’s their ball and they are obviously going to play the game as they like. Racing would make much more impact PR-wise, imo, by inviting those who support NH racing to withhold their licence fee for as long as is legally possible.
The next time the BBC ask AP, Sir Henry or Nicky for an interview they should say Thanks but No Thanks. What is Racing getting out of it’s current relationship with the BBC aside from a whole load of negativity? Tell them to come back once they can show this great sport in a positive light and more balanced manner.
Time Great British Racing got on the case and had a quiet word with the BBC as a fair bit of the work they are doing will be undone by the nation’s main broadcaster.
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