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Lost in the last race at Cheltenham due to a reported spinal injury. The lows are outweighing the highs for me. RIP
Just too many lows this week.
We were so incredible fortunate not to have had double digits in fatalities. And still nobody comes up with a proper explanation.
Rest in Peace Raya Star and good luck to the fortunate survivors and all the other horses in trainingCould it be that he was injured when he made that mistake earlier in the race? It’s not been a good Cheltenham has it, and it’s ended on a low. RIP Raya Star.
It only ran in small fields and faced a total of 12 horses in its 4 previous races. Today, all of a sudden there were 22 opponents in the same race. You make mistakes, because you aren`t used to the furious pace and you don`t get to see the fences properly. This is exactly why he fell. Very sad indeed.
Horses fall for all sorts of reasons … sometimes it’s just a tiny error and they clip the top and pay the ultimate price (like My Conor). Possibly Raya Star was unsighted and maybe unnerved by quite a blunder at the 2nd – which may have been because he wasn’t used to being in a large field. But there again most horses don’t get much experience of racing in large fields do they? It always amazes me that in large, tightly packed fields they do see the obstacle and take off with precision! It wasn’t tiredness as too early in the race. So for some reason he got it wrong … only the jockey would be able to answer what happened exactly. Other horses also had horrible falls but they got up to fight another day … in the Foxhunters Ganbei took quite a heavy fall, got up and got hit first on his back end and then on his neck by other runners – he’ll be a pretty sore boy now but nothing broken …
Raya Star looked a picture of a healthy, strong and handsome racehorse and as always I’m very sad he lost his life today.
A sad loss, as are all equine fatalities. Raya Star was an honest and talented performer; I always had a soft spot for him, with his quirky tail carriage and almost lethargic paddock demeanour.
You’ll be missed, Raya.
Very very sad to lose Raya Star, who was probably the horse who launched Wayne Hutchinson out of Robert Thornton’s shadow in the Alan King yard.
Raya Star had three crunching falls over hurdles (one winded him badly), so I was not happy to see him chasing this year. To the horse and trainer’s credit, he jumped fairly well around some difficult tracks until today, so I thought it was time to bow to Alan King’s judgement.
But…oh dear.
Absolutely awful that he paid the ultimate price for his clumsiness today. Raya Star had a great battling attitude and plenty of ability – I’ll miss him.RIP
A much loved character, Raya Star
can’t believe you have gone.RIPCheltenham has taken some of the best this year, you always know when Cheltenham/Aintree come around there will be casualties. Today several jockeys were badly injured, Daryl Jacob just on his way to post, thankfully the horse was unscathed and Daryl is going to be OK. I think the watered track saved a lot more horses today but sadly Raya Star was not one of them.
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...The theory of a large field causing fatal falls thrown of the window today … Newcastle chase field of 6 – 2 fatalities – early fences too poor Cloverhill Lad and Bocamix had plenty of time to see the fences, not going any mad gallop and just missed them out – horrific somersaults … think the latter was instant …
poor lads
I understand that The Cockney Mackem died today as well. Was jumping beautifully till he fell.
The increased pace due to the faster ground makes things worse.
Look at Oscar Whisky: Another one with no proper opposition over fences in his previous starts. Didn’t even get to jump the first fence at the Festival.The increased pace due to the faster ground makes things worse.
Look at Oscar Whisky: Another one with no proper opposition over fences in his previous starts. Didn’t even get to jump the first fence at the Festival.Is he lost too? Or just injured?
@ Black Gold re Oskar Whisky
He isn’t lost, but I was just talking about novices running in very small fields on softish ground and then taking on 20+ horses on very fast ground. The chance of making mistakes or not gettig that far is quite big. That is teh reasonwhy I’ve mentioned him.
And there aren’t many novice chases for horses like him either. I remember Nicky Henderson talking about the problems he faced of finding the right races for Oscar Whisky at the end of November and through December.
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