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The latest in a long line of recent fatalities for the Oliver McKiernan & “Keep the Faith Syndicate”. Finished tailed off last in his last run on 9th October. R.I.P.
Well, I assume you’re right about this one as well.
My conclusion is that useless horses can be put down just for fun, if the owner wishes to. I hope someone can prove me wrong, but this won’t be that easy. They never put down a trainer for being useless or mistreating his horses……
Rest in peace Talk To Jack and also the remaining horses of the Keep The Faith Syndicate. Sadly, there will be a lot more to come.
useless horses can be put down just for fun
Well, not for fun. As an economic decision. They can’t all race and win well into their teens (a big thumbs up to the McNallys for their excellent handling of See Double You to keep him sound at sweet to this point by the way).
They can’t all retire to the plushy surroundings of Martinstown and there is a limit to the number of people wanting a nice retired racehorse to ride for a few years then feed and foot trim and tooth rasp till they’re pushing 30, potentially.
These may well have gone to an abattoir and as long as they were fit to travel, didn’t have to go too far and were humanely treated when they got there (needs properly monitored so situations like that bloody awful Red Lion place don’t happen) , that’s better than being chucked out on a bog and thrown half a bale of rotting silage occasionally.
At least their deaths have been recorded so that is something. I would like to see traceability from birth to death of all, like there is with cattle and sheep. At the moment, it’s so haphazard. I would like this to be worldwide so that we can’t just export our problems too.
(Australia can’t get enough of the Coolmore middle distance rejects at the moment it seems; if Sir Dragonet’s legs don’t stand up to fast Aussie ground I hope he doesn’t end up at that even bloodier and more awful Meramist place).
Who should pay? Breeders and us gamblers, probably- the supply and the driving force behind the demand, respectively.
All of the above is correct of course.
However, the whole thing is inherently wrong. If we’ve developed what is actually only a sport, something to entertain the masses, then there is a moral responsibility to look after the living animals who are the provider at the basic level of that sport. They rely completely on their owners. They’re completely dependent and have no say. Without them there would be no sport.
It’s just not good enough to say ‘Well he’s a rubbish racehorse, I can’t afford to keep paying for him so I’ll just send him for slaughter. It’s a vile death, but at least I’ll pick up a little bit of cash’. If you can’t afford to look after them, don’t buy them in the first place, don’t train, don’t own, take responsibility. Not that I’m suggesting that’s what this syndicate has done of course. I know however of trainers who’ve sent young horses, no longer able to race, for slaughter without any effort to try to find a home or another occupation for the horse. But you get paid for sending them to slaughter.
They may only be an animal to some people, ‘just a horse’, but these are animals that aren’t even in reality there to be sat on by people, that’s happened only because they’re capable of being sat on. They’re living creatures, living totally un-natural lives to provide entertainment for people, some of whom have become extremely rich because of it. None of them ask to be racehorses and most of them don’t ‘live like royalty’. Not that they’d want to, they just need kindness and respect and a bit of decency. I know enough people in the racing business to be only too aware of how a lot of the horses live.
So if they’re deemed to be racehorses then are found to be not good enough, then yes, some-one, the racing industry as a whole, has a responsibility to look after them properly, not just say ‘well you’re only 5 but you’re not fast enough and sending you for slaughter is better than living in a bog to struggle’. That is just really, really, not good enough, not humane, not responsible. Shameful really.
I complained to HRI and they missed the point completely as their concern is that they’re notified of the death and that’s about it. They’re going to remind the trainer concerned of his responsibility in notifying them without delay.
Bearing in my that I don’t actually know the reason for so many deaths of young horses in such a short space of time, but nothing I can think of seems healthy and it’s very, very distressing. Maybe, who knows, the trainer/syndicate is heartbroken.
But can you imagine the outcry if the general public, who already think racing is cruel, found out about things like this? These are living creatures. Young, living creatures, beautiful, noble animals who didn’t ask to be in the racing industry to start with. They’re there because we put them there, we make them do it and the ones who fail are, too many times, let down very, very badly. We should be curling up in shame.
Spot on Bonanza Boy. Stories like this are a gift to the anti-racing lobby. There is already discussion on wider social media
What is your definition of the anti-racing lobby? In my opinion such syndicates with 10-20 very mediocre or rather very poor horses in their ownership are anti-racing as well. I know that owning horse races should be fun for horses and owners (and everyone else involved), but buying very cheap stock with almost no chance at all to face the demands of this very competitive sport is not how this is supposed to work.
Especially not, if you have to compete against social media nowadays.JP, Trevor Hemmings, John Hales and so on, they really love the game and their equine athletes. But they never buy really cheap. If you can’t pay like them then you can’t play like them. Instead of buying 20 cheap horses of limited potential, better buy 3-4 with some future in the game. The more selective buyers will become the more selective the breeding will be.
Sad and sickened to hear of yet another horse lost to the ‘Keep The Faith’ syndicate and the fact that the HRI had no interest in the case whatsoever when Bonanza reported his suspicions to them apart from keeping the trainer up to speed on reporting the numerous deaths of the horses in his yard some that had not even been near a racecourse. Wouldn’t that fact alone have raised alarm bells?
How many more horses from this syndicate in particular and possibly others are going to lose their lives before someone steps in to investigate the unprecedented amount of deaths.
It just makes you feel so helpless and ashamed that people can treat beautiful animals like this.RIP Talk To Jack
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...It wasn’t what I was thinking of RubyLight but I certainly take your point about buying fewer and paying more. However, many small-scale owners have poor quality horses, which they probably bought cheaply and never win anything with but they can still manage to find homes for them once their racing days are over, so wouldn’t tar all with the same brush
Yes Prong. I don’t know how you access them but Ekbalco kindly posts the monthly lists on this page. Talk To Jack is registered as died on the Racing Post database horse index though. He isn’t on the last HRI list we’ve seen
At least they are transparent unlike the BHA or racecourses in GB, dread to think of the amount of deaths that are brushed under the carpet.
Example being Kaymar who fell this year at Fontwell or Thankq who “lost its action” at Newcastle in February. Both have not run since, been entered into races or appear on the trainer’s websites. Also nothing on the racing post database or anywhere else I can see. Both could be alive and well but I very much doubt it
You can search for horses on the BHA site https://www.britishhorseracing.com/racing/horses/
Sadly both the horses you mention were reported to have died several days after their last races (Kaymar 17 Feb & Thankq 28 Feb). I had been checking for the status of a horse who also “lost action” earlier this year but fortunately he is still with us so it isn’t always bad news. Sometimes they just need time to recover or are retired.
https://www.hri-ras.ie/registrations/
Here’s a link Prong, HRI publish them here every Thursday
If you go to here
https://www.hri-ras.ie/registrations/
You can then look through the relevant calendar supplement for any deaths recorded. Follows Colours of Riders Registered section.
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