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Grand Turina, a 12yo trained by Venetia Williams lost his life after an horrific fall at Lingfield this afternoon. He had sweated up beforehand (fair enough) and was just about leading, although under some duress, when coming down at the ninth fence.
Those are the bare facts of ostensibly just another incident, the like of which demands all racing’s professionals and fans make our pact with the devil.
Grand Turina was modest, reaching a peak rating of 120 after a win in a veteran’s chase at Warwick in 2021. Since then, his form had gradually disappeared and he burst a blood vessel when tailing off at Market Rasen 11 months ago. It seems strange that he returned to the track nine months later to predictably rapidly pull-up. Even stranger that two months after that he was tried again off top-weight today.
It is easy to accuse, or imply accusation, of connections when such incidents occur. Let’s be honest: if the horse had jumped around at the back then pulled-up safely, I wouldn’t be writing this. But that’s not what happened and I struggle to see what that horse was doing on a racecourse today.
Could there not be some stewarding process in place to ask connections (without accusation) for an explanation in such cases?
Mike
Horses go in and out of form. Grand Turina ran respectably a lot of times as recently as last season. Venetia Williams has had plenty of success with older horses, and I trust her expert judgement.
If we banned every modest horse that had lost its form from running, or had to have a detailed enquiry into their participation, there would soon be virtually no horses to race, and the sport would end.
What happened to Grand Turina is desperately sad. Obviously everything needs to be done to try and minimise the likelihood of fatalities and injuries, but I don’t think the horse was being run inappropriately today, or that anyone is “to blame” in this instance (am not saying you think there is).
In rather more extreme cases there is a case for enquiring into a trainer’s plans, but I don’t believe that is the case here.
Anyway, RIP Grand Turina.
Did anyone have any thoughts of what happened? I watched it several times on the slow motion reply. It looked to me as if she had met the fence well but fully took off. It could have been a heart attack, when a horse falls of such ferocity and makes no attempts to save itself.
She’s 12 years old and shown absolutely nothing in the last year, no need to keep going on it’s a bad look for the sport.
What if the 15 year old Regal Encore (another horse who’s shown nothing for a year) was fatally injured in his fall on Saturday? The Daily mail and BBC would have had a field day, it’s only a matter of time before the end of national hunt racing in this country but things like this will accelerate it.
Is it really worse to be racing a mature 12 year old than a 2 year old that is still developing? They have been bred to be racehorses, and many horses are still capable of winning at that age, including after a loss of form.
I think the bigger question is that we have to decide whether it is acceptable to race horses or not. This is a question I always struggle with after a sickening fall such as Grand Turina’s.
If we start needing detailed justification to race individual horses on a regular basis, we probably have to conclude the answer to this question is “no”.
There’s no problem with racing 12yos, 13yos, 14yos per se – indeed, these veterans give a great deal of pleasure to jumps fans.
But I do think that connections of such horses in a similar mould as Grand Turina: specific recent injuries, long gaps between runs and clearly in deteriorating form, should at least be questioned as to the appropriate nature of persevering.
No accusations, no blame, just a rational explanation of the horse’s suitability to race from owner & trainer to ease concerns.
Mike
Do you think these inquiries should be made publically available Mike? I genuinely don’t think this would reduce fatality rates. As soon as something happened to a horse that had been flagged, which it inevitably would eventually, it would be a very bad look for the sport.
I also don’t think you could get away from an element of accusation or blame even if that were not the intention.
There are numerous ways that the sport can, and must, continue to improve equine welfare, but I’m not convinced on this one.
As with all these things in the modern world, the visuals outweigh the detail.
12yo mares collapsing and dying on a racecourse isn’t a good look.
That’s it and all about it.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I do still believe that racing is ethically defensible. But there is no getting away from the fact that today’s incident was horrific and could do the sport damage if the animal rights groups are able to show it on social media.
And in the 21st century “visually horrific” trumps “ethically defensible.”
That’s what racing is up against.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Today’s fatality was a fall, and it looked to be caused by a take off that was too early rather than a horse collapsing and dying. It would be horrific whatever the age of the horse.
If there had been the pre-race inquiry approach mentioned above, I am sure that Venetia Williams would have been able to justify that the horse was fit and well and capable of taking part. After the tragic event occurred, the inquiry would simply provide further ammo for people to say “greedy trainer ignored concerns about horse’s welfare and ran it anyway”.
Agree ID. In our social media age, emotional arguments have more impact than facts.
I think it’s good to have such a discussion about the incident and trainers can also be criticized by people who don’t train horses.
Looking back at the incident: it happened at the open ditch where the horse might have injured the front leg while taking off and with the momentum loss and the injured fore it had no chance of landing properly. That’s how I think you can explain the broken neck.
The horse was 12 years old, but had very poor form in it’s last six races and was 40/1 in a pretty weak race. The last few times Gran Turina ran of this mark she was 11/8, 3/1, 4/1 and 5/2. Today’s SP of 40/1 reflects that even the shrewdest connections in the game didn’t expect too much from her.
If you look at other countries, like Hong Kong for instance, you see that horses that come back from injury or a longer break have to re-trial, which means that they will be revalued and allowed to run in a race that suits their actual fitness and ability best. But, they can also be denied the run.
I have no idea, if this can be translated to NH racing, but running any horse at three-digit prices and finishing 80+ lengths behind the winners can’t be good for horse and the sport.
It wouldn’t be too bad, if in such cases trainers could prove that the horse has retained the necessary health and ability in order to compete in the race.
Good post ERL
Agree it is well worth discussing; it is such an important topic.I would say that Grand Turina had only performed poorly on her last 4 starts rather than 6, and her break from racing was about 9 months. These types of criteria would apply to a significant proportion of the racehorse population.
It’s interesting to hear about Hong Kong, and I would be keen to know further detail. If any kind of vetting criteria were introduced, then having something rules-based would seem less likely to invite problems.
The last thing we need to be doing at the moment is interrogating the few owners that are left in the game for simply running their horses.
Usually it will be the trainer who tells them that the horse has had enough and the best thing to do is retire. Unfortunately though, most trainers have a huge conflict of interest because, simply put, they need the money.
Grand Turina won two races back to back barely 14 months ago and ran respectably in a couple of class 3’s not long after that. OK, he then ran three stinkers back to back before today but there are plenty of horses of all ages who do that.
It was horrible to see what happened today but it’s not possible to eliminate risk from National Hunt racing.
I know it’s difficult to have NH horses running in trial races, but you’d need somebody to witness a good piece of work, especially with older horses or ones struggling to run to form.
The only strange thing today was the SP of 40/1. Considering the good run the stable is having at the moment, this one was just way too high with the bookies.
I’m not blaming Veneti at all, but maybe Nora’s Playmates just wanted to have a fun day at the track. Just guessing, of course….
This is a short link which might help understand the HK barrier trials:
Hong Kong Racing Study Guide: A Key To Understanding Barrier Trials
Agree it is well worth discussing; it is such an important topic.
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