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Terrible thing to happen.<br>Ironic (if you could call it that, can’t think of a suitable word), that the fall should have happened at Kilbeggan of all places – after all the recent trouble the course has had with the ambulance track (or lack of it).<br>We all wanted to see the course open again but nobody wanted the ambulance’s to be needed.<br>We all know how dangerous it is, but we (well I anyway), seem to put it to the back of our minds and are forced to think of it when these things happen. We all have to hope for more improvements to racing/equipment etc, to make tragedies like this less common.
Sorry, just read this on another site. The AQHA were taken to court saying that their restrictions (one embryo transfer per mare per year) were against Texas laws of free trade (or something like that). But here’s the interesting bit:<br>The AQHA case may also open the door for changes at The Jockey Club, which bans both artificial insemination and embryo transfer. A Pennsylvania palomino Thoroughbred breeder has said she is proceeding with a lawsuit against The Jockey Club on the grounds that its ban on artificial insemination is a violation of free trade.Bob Curran Jr., vice president of corporate communications for The Jockey Club, said the cases are fundamentally different.The AQHA case was not about whether embryo transfer should be allowed or not, the organization had already endorsed the rule. The case, instead, was about how that rule should be administered."The AQHA rules were different from The Jockey Club’s eligibility rules," Curran said. "As a result, we cannot comment on the purposes of the AQHA rules or whether they raised any legitimate legal concerns."Curran reiterated that The Jockey Club’s rules protect the integrity of the breed to define the product the Thoroughbred industry offers and ensure it will be able to continue to provide that traditional high-quality racing product for generations to come. <br>
Venusian – I didn’t mean to say that it the breed is more inbred now than years ago, what I mean was that it is in danger of becoming more inbred.<br>Adrian, I am familiar with AI, and its related procedures as I come from a farming background and have used it on both cattle and pigs, and sport horses, and am not completely against the idea! There are numbers of good points like I mentioned – disease prevention, and transporting it over long distances being some of the main ones as well as being able to store semen and use it after the death of the sire. I think it could lead to more inbreeding, as well as helping to ease the situation. Most people can see the big picture – that as the market becomes more saturated with the produce of a certain stallion, the value falls, but a lot of breeders think ‘oh – that horse sold for £*****, I’ll try and breed one of those by that stallion too’. They see it as taking a chance, hoping that they’ll be lucky too, and as future vendors, they are governed by fashions, they want to take a chance at making a profit by going to a successful, fashionable sire, rather than having no chance of making a profit if they use an ‘unfashionable’ sire. Whilst AI would help in some ways, I think it would only lead to more overuse of the so-called ‘fashionable sires’, particularly if it gets to the stage where the semen can be transported to the mares, and your own vet, or even you can give it to the mare. I think some sort of limit, on the amount of mares a stallion can cover pre year(either conventionally or by AI) could be good, but any representative of breeders I’ve asked so far has been adament that that will never happen – they say its unfair to the stallion owners. Some sort of rules (strict ones) have to be laid down, and soon!
I think that the TB, as a breed is becoming more and more inbred, which seems a shame after hundreds of years trying to get away from and preventing this. I’m not really into statistics, but I’d be interested to know just how many of the TB ‘population’ of the world have some Northern Dancer blood and how few are completely free of it. Breeders (including my own family), feel ‘forced’ to go to fashionable stallions, in an attempt to sell the foal, at any stage in its life. A huge proportion of the stallions seem to have some Northern Dancer/Sadler’s Wells blood. This might be OK now, but in 10 or twenty years time, when you have mares of this bloodline going to stallions of similar lines (both of which may have ND on both dam and sire lines), I don’t think would be any good. <br>At the minute, without AI, stallions can only cover a limited amount of mares a year (obviously it varies from stallion to stallion), but if AI were introduced they could cover far, far more mares. OK, it would be good in some ways – disease prevention and the semen could be transported over long distances instead of the mares or stallions for example, but I feel it would only make the problem outlined above worse.<br>And I’m not really into genetics and used ND as an example, but that’s how I feel. If AI was introduced, then it wouldn’t be long before embryo transplantation was, this might be a blessing in some cases. A lot of rules would have to be laid down before any of this could take place.
I realise what you are saying, but I think you are being slightly unfair to Coolmore. They are in it to make money, its their business, and their job. I’m sure I would have done the same thing at the end of last year. If you had Galileo would you have risked losing him altogether for the good of the sport? They stood/stand to make millions (yes, I know they already have millions). That’s just the way life is, money makes the world go round. But think of how many years he could stand there for them, if he turns out to be any good as a sire he could be there for 20 years. Look at Supreme Leader – a leading National hunt sire, he was about 25 when he died last month. You can’t force people to keep their horses racing, you might prefer it, but this way I’m sure they’d argue that they are giving more mares the chance to be covered by him etc. <br>Just be thankful they haven’t introduced AI to the TB world yet – that would be a disaster.
There is a difference between two or three horses being connected and 12 horses being connected. I’m sure we understand that Pipe has different horses for different owners and the owners may want there horses to compete but there has to be some sort of limit on this However good the horses are, they can’t all win. Ok, so there are exceptions, like the 1983 Gold Cup. The National is all about the rags to riches type stories, and smaller trainers should be given a chance (only if the horse is capable of course). Moor Lane is a good horse, and should have been included. Of course eveyone is intitled to their own opinion (and no, I didn’t back it!)
Everyone seems to have really short memories. Two years ago, when he won his last champion hurdle, he was found to have blood on his nose after arriving at the racecourse. AOB told the public – something we should be thankful for, the same as we should be thankful they were so honest this time – we were never kept in the dark. Anyway, they took the decision to run him in 2000, taking a huge chance, and it paid off. I don’t see that what happened this year is any different. It might have seemed like it was impossible for him to win this year but I remember a hell of a lot of people saying the same thing in 2000 – nobody said the horse shouldn’t have run then, so why are they saying it now?<br>Its all over now anyway – no point arguing over it, i hope he has a long and happy retirement, and the injury clears up soon.
I’m actually reading a book about this at the minute (its called ‘Them and Us’ – the Irish at Cheltenham). I’m still none the wiser! <br>I’m guilty of it myself (even though I live in Northern Ireland so you could argue I’m technically not Irish). <br>We are, without a doubt in my eyes, more passionate about racing than the English. Racing over here seems a lot more intimate than in England – everyone knows someone and people are always willing to talk to strangers. Well that’s what I’ve always found anyway. Ireland is the home of National hunt racing, Ok the english might have developed it for us, but the first recorded steeplechase took place here! I’ve been to stacks of point to points and race meetings, though regrettably I haven’t yet been pony racing (can anybody tell me what that’s like?), and there is some magic quality, the ‘craic’ (not just the Guiness).<br>We love to cheer Irish horses home, particularly at cheltenham, and I’m sure some do back horses just cos they’re Irish, but i wouldn’t back an Irish horse that had no chance just cos it was Irish. If however it was a choice between an english and an irish horse i know which I would be on! I think we feel that the english underestimate our horses somewhat, especially those from relatively small, ‘unknown’ yards, and we love to prove you all wrong.<br>Ok, so after all that rambling its clear i have no idea why we do it – one of life’s great mysteries!
These are the figures for the fatalities at Aintree (and I got these from the Animal Aid website who aren’t likely to lie about these)<br>2000: 5 during whole meeting, 0 in actual National<br>1999: 4 ” ” ” 1 ” ” ”<br>1998: 5 ” ” ” 4 ” ” ”<br>1997: 8 ” ” ” 0 ” ” ”<br>So I do agree with whoever it was said about the hurdles at Aintree. <br>I can’t remember how many died during the meeting last year but I know there were no fatalities in the National itself.<br>Lets not forget about the origins of steeplechasing – from ‘steeple’ to ‘steeple’ over the countryide. If the Grand National, or indeed any steeplechase is supposed to represent this then of course there are going to be ditches and water jumps. The fences have been modified numerous times over the years and I wouldn’t really want them to get any ‘easier’. Do people want plain fences? The fact that horses like Suny Bay and others are able to complete the course year after year should show that there is no problem with the fences, the problem is the loose horses and the weather. And yes, perhaps the number of horses competing should be reduced to perhaps 20, and there should be stricter rules to say ‘who’ can compete. If it really was as bad as these people seem to make out do you think you would get trainers/owners entering horses, and jockeys wanting to ride in it?<br>But I’m shocked to find that they are able to organise protests like this so publically and no moves are made to stop them. Is this how riots start?<br>
