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Their response to you planned letter will be interesting.
Rob
Indeed it will – I have written an article about it and have just sent a pre-publication draft to Hexham to give them a chance to respond.
I will let you know what response, if any, I receive.
Could be interesting – I am already not on their Christmas card list and came close to being banned by the course when they took a strong exception to me describing their main "stand" as a glorified bicycle shed and I refused to retract it.
You can do no more than tell it as it is, Paul. I adore Hexham as a racecourse and there are few more dramatically beautiful sporting venues in the country to my mind, never mind one that charges so little to get in.
There’s plenty else about it that makes your eyes roll around in your head, though. I can’t say the quality of the stands registers with me much as a fan of the similarly uncovered Bangor and Cartmel, but I’ve never been too fond of its power failures, inadequate catering and reluctance to bolster prizemoney even before its Levy funding was slashed by 47% a year ago.
I’d love someone to come along and really grab the place by the scruff – it’s crying out for it like few other courses in the country.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Agree entirely Paul and having seen a few shockers in my time (Alfini in the Guineas – 6ft high translucent screens and an incident at Dieppe last month) in addition to the Eight Belles pictures in the US I think that more can be done in instances like the above.
Someone will have to fill in the gaps for me here, but didn’t Chris Tetley at Thirsk have to apologise on the course’s behalf after racegoers and / or viewers saw rather too much of a stricken horse being euthenised once this summer? Can’t remember every last detail.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Someone will have to fill in the gaps for me here, but didn’t Chris Tetley at Thirsk have to apologise on the course’s behalf after racegoers and / or viewers saw rather too much of a stricken horse being euthenised once this summer? Can’t remember every last detail.
gc
I believe the worst example came at Musselburgh in 2000 when quite a few racegoers witnessed the racecourse vet actually sawing the leg off a horse (Midyan Blue) who had been destroyed.
Good grief! How was that allowed to happen?
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Hats off to Hexham and to the Managing Director Charles Enderby, who has responded thus:-
Although we have never had critisism over the years of our flatbed, I think, as you point out, it is time for improvement.I plan to use our old Horse Ambulance for future collection of dead horses. Hopefully this will start on the 6th November, but if the adaption takes a little longer, it will be in use for our 18th November meeting onwards.
Obviously I will add their comments to the article.
I guess the vet would be sawing the leg off for the insurance company.
TBH, I would prefer the money that would be spent on a ‘posh’ knacker wagon(or new horse ambulance), to go towards horses that are still alive.Hats off to Hexham and to the Managing Director Charles Enderby, who has responded thus:-
Although we have never had critisism over the years of our flatbed, I think, as you point out, it is time for improvement.I plan to use our old Horse Ambulance for future collection of dead horses. Hopefully this will start on the 6th November, but if the adaption takes a little longer, it will be in use for our 18th November meeting onwards.
Obviously I will add their comments to the article.
Well done Paul.
(And credit to the course for their response.)This thread exemplifies your contribution to the forum, long may you continue to do this!
:shock:
Good grief! How was that allowed to happen?
gc
Hats off to Hexham and to the Managing Director Charles Enderby, who has responded thus:-
Although we have never had critisism over the years of our flatbed, I think, as you point out, it is time for improvement.I plan to use our old Horse Ambulance for future collection of dead horses. Hopefully this will start on the 6th November, but if the adaption takes a little longer, it will be in use for our 18th November meeting onwards.
Obviously I will add their comments to the article.
Excellent outcome, Paul! And glad to see that whatever grievances Mr Enderby & co have had with your comments about the course previously** don’t automatically preposses them to disregard what you had to say to them.
Rory – ta for the link. Astonishing story, and not in a good way (other than it guaranteed no repeat instance at the track).
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)(** Apropos of which: I guess it’s the mention of the "bicycle shed" on your ORS write-up that they objected to, is it? Seems a bit off of them, given how much of the positive you’d accentuated about the venue – it was hardly part of a hatchet job).
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I have been watching horse racing since the late 1960s. The covering & removal of horses is a relatvely new thing. I have seen a lot of televised races over the years where the runners have been waved past a dead horse on the course or the uncovered corpse of a horse has been spotted lying under a rail & sometimes I have seen a tarpaulin over one on a course.
We are becoming more sensitive to death & I think that the race courses are compelled to do this due to the attentions of the Animal Rights activists who use horseracing as a political tool.
As a nation we have become much more squeamish about dead animals. Few people now have dealings with large animals & most buy meat in plastic packaging which doesn’t indicate its origin. I recently saw some very distressed people & children when a local butcher had a whole piglet displayed in the shop window. Although I do not advocate going back to the old practice of leaving an uncovered dead horse on a race course I do think deaths should be acknowledged & not overly sanitised & brushed under the carpet.
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I don’t think death is being ‘brushed under the carpet’, Crepello, just dealt with in as dignified a manner as possible. After all, you wouldn’t expect an open coffin to be paraded around the streets, would you?
I remember being at Chepstow a few years ago when Elvis of Lawrence Wells’s was killed in a selling hurdle. He fell at the first, right in front of the stands, and the injury he sustained was eerily audible – it made one or two around me feel quite uneasy. Now, you have to ask what effect a heavy-handed and inconsiderate removal of that horse, coupled with the manner of his demise, would have done to a) children, and b) first-time racegoers.
My guess is they wouldn’t have been back for more.
That’s not to say though that the perception of an inexperienced public is the only reason to a remove a horse’s body properly, as they deserve both their dignity and our respect even in death; I can’t think of anything worse (in racing terms at least) than having to sit and watch a dead animal being clumsily hauled away.
Nobody’s saying we should remain ignorant of death – I, for one, appreciate announcements concerning the passing of horses – just treat it with a degree of common sense and consideration.
Excellant work Paul. Well done to Hxham too for their response.
However,
I do believe there are times the hiding of stricken animals is taken too far.When a horse is in severe pain, surely it is best to shoot it, at the earliest possible moment? Not wait for the screen to go up. Whether there are racegoers around or not.
Value Is EverythingWhen a horse is in severe pain, surely it is best to shoot it, at the earliest possible moment? Not wait for the screen to go up. Whether there are racegoers around or not.
Thanks Mark
I can’t remember precisely where or when but I can certainly recall at least two occasions where severely distressed horse has been put down by the vet before the screens have arrived – so it can happen.
I wasn’t implying that we should go back to the days when the suffering or the death of an animal was laid bare to the general public equitrack. When I said "brushed under the carpet" I was thinking more of television reporters not updating their viewers about the demise of a horse in a race.
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