Citizen Vic

[SMM]

I’m relieved I have found this forum and to see other race goers expressing concern about horses. I love going to the races but every year I worry more about the horses and that there will be nasty and fatal falls. I seem more relieved when a race ends with all home safely than when i back a winner so something’s changing for me. I went to the festival yesterday had a great day but in the 6th a horse took a bad fall. The screens went up and I couldn’t look away until I knew what had happened (think it was second to last). The horse got up after an age and I came home happy. I get frustrated that the rest of the crowd seem oblivious and that no mention is made at the course on whether a horse is okay after a fall. My family part own a horse, the trainer is wonderful and I don’t want racing to stop but I hate the risk and silence about what can and does go wrong. How do other people reconcile the good and bad of racing?

SMM

[SharkEnergy]

Well I’ve been to the races many times and seen the screens go up and then the horse reappear completely safe and the crowd give a nice reception.

[DomiDarko]

Citizen Vic broke his neck as he twisted it completely over as his body went over him as he fell. It was a sad day. I hope Kauto was ok. That made me gasp in horror aswell.

[Burroughhill]

Well I’ve been to the races many times and seen the screens go up and then the horse reappear completely safe and the crowd give a nice reception.

I think the vst majority of us racing fans have got our hearts in the right place. I remember at Ascot once the biggest cheer of the whole day was when a fallen horse finally emerged from behind the screens.

[Roseblossom]

Doubly painful for me as I met Citizen Vic’s connections on the Tuesday and they were saying how anxious they were, and that they would really have preferred to go to Punchestowns. It’s heartbreaking they should lose him.

[Roseblossom]

I get frustrated that the rest of the crowd seem oblivious and that no mention is made at the course on whether a horse is okay after a fall. My family part own a horse, the trainer is wonderful and I don’t want racing to stop but I hate the risk and silence about what can and does go wrong. How do other people reconcile the good and bad of racing?

SMM

I tend to take the Festival as something separate to my usual Cheltenham experiences, with many people there who are basically about the betting and the drinking rather than the horse.

I missed the Albert Barlett as I was looking at Denman et al in the pre-parade but I heard the cheer when Restless Harry got up. It was almost louder than the cheer that greeted the start of the first race.

There are days when I’ve almost walked away – after Strong Promise was killed at Aintree I stopped watching any racing for months. It was only after the weekend I found out that Lake Kariba had collapsed and died afterwards, I just avoided all the coverage. Even now I tend not to take any time off to watch that meeting, I only did last year because Denman was running.

I walked past the connections when they lost Hold ‘Em at Cheltenham. All of them standing staring up where the screens were still up even though the horse was long since gone, a couple of them sobbing, it was an awful, awful scene.

But afterwards I thought how obvious it was they loved that horse. And yes, there’s a risk, but you look at those poor bloody horses that had the misfortune to wind up with that trader in Kent. How many died in extreme suffering because of his laziness? Isn’t it better that a horse is loved, and if there is an accident he’s quickly attended to by a professional, than he’s left to die in a muddy, grassless field?

And while there is risk in racing a horse, there’s more risk in just being a horse. If I remember rightly, Viking Flagship had to be put down after being turned out in his paddock and slipping whilst having a buck and a kick.

This is worth a read:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/raci … 61250.html

If you have a horse, if you love it and if you stand by your responsibilities to it – now and when it retires – then you have done everything you can.

[SMM]

Just wanted to thank all and Roseblossom in particular for the replies. I’m still thinking all this through and trying to read up as much as I can about racing to help me get perspective back so that the enjoyment and excitement outweigh the anxiousness again.

[moehat]

Don’t give up on racing SMM. It may sometimes be more painful to view it from the vantage point of loving the horses, but you’ll get far more out of it than people who don’t. When Strong Promise died I bought some floweres for my garden that come back every year in his memory, and when One Man died I put his name in a locket and wore it for ages afterwards. I’m so glad that those wonderful horses were part of my life. And, now that you’ve found this forum there are always people who will share how you feel.

[sovies friend]

I’d like to echo Moehat’s sentiment we all know the risks involved but we all love the horses for me one of the hardest losses of recent times was Nil Desperandum He looked every inch a future national winner when he was lost in the midlands national it was hard for me to run the sweepstake that year with his name missing, the ERC lost Inherent at Wetherby & that really hurt as I had high hopes for her as a future broodmare.

We know the Risks but for true fans the love of the horse in paramount I didn’t have a single bet on Cheltenham & the highlight of the festival was Ruby cantering Kauto home after his horrid looking fall.

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