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Thank goodness for ham – think he’s the only sensible one among you.
It does make you wonder sometimes. Why am I in this sport when 95% of its followers and participants are such numpties?
L’enfer, c’est les autres.
Elliott has not ruined his career. I think this is less of a problem than the Davy Russell incident – that’s a man losing his temper and abusing a live horse, suggestive of what might happen when there are no cameras. This is a blockhead doing something disrespectful over the body of a dead horse. I think a suitable resolution might be Elliott making a hefty donation to a Greatwood type charity just to smooth things over. A ban would seem inappropriate to me.
Trainers are far more hardnosed than they seem, even those who come across very smooth with the media. I was talked into having a share of one with Fergal a couple of years ago and went down for the morning to watch it work and see the place. Not only could the trainer not pick my horse out of the bunch for me (had to ask the riders) – he was unable to identify his stable stars as they walked past. No abuse involved there (and I wouldn’t want to suggest that at all, they care for them well), but goes to show that the image and the reality can be very different behind the scenes.
“I’ll never forget that sick image and yes guarantee Cheveley Park will pull their horses and the sooner the better.”
I’m willing to lay you a decent price that they won’t do this.
Indeed, and I’m sure they will move on quickly. People in racing overrate the power of those outside the sport. The whole thing is a visual disaster, especially jump racing. Tired horses being whipped over long distances, fatal falls, breakdowns, corruption, drugs, emotionless Irish fellas riding and training.
The sport has survived far worse things with just the usual superficial coverage in the press. The One Show featured Grand National runner McKelvey in a schmultzy weekly Primetime feature before he met a grizzly death in the race itself. Kentucky Derby and Breeders Cup Classic winner Ferdinand became pet food. Hallo Dandy was abused after racing. High profile horses who reached the public like Many Clouds, One Man and Best Mate died on the racecourse. Other equine stars like Kauto Star, Denman and Desert Orchid took horrible falls near the end of their careers that could easily have turned out much worse. Howard Johnson removed the nerves from the legs of lame horses and kept racing them until they broke down.
But we carry on…
What a load of wet lettuces. From the oldest (Steeplechasing) to the youngest (Cornrack15), we’ve had everything on here and on Twitter. I’ve seen all of the following:
Picture not real, lifetime ban, all owners will leave the yard, Envoi Allen to Mullins, Elliott is “finished”, 6 month ban, no runners at Cheltenham…
I don’t think any of those will happen and tend to agree with Ham and Gingertipster – perspective has been lost. It’s embarrassing and uncomfortable but worse things happen in this sport all the time. A worse PR disaster is a bad Cheltenham for fatalities or a death in the Grand National. Elliott hasn’t really broken any rules and there’s nothing to suggest this horse was mistreated in life. On what grounds can a heavy punishment be given out? What specific rule are you going to call him out on?
I predict all will carry on as normal and honestly think it should. I’m not bigtime enough to send a horse to Elliott but honestly wouldn’t have any qualms about letting him care for one of mine.
Davy Russell punched a horse and is now the media darling again. Tony McCoy launched his helmet in a tantrum next to a badly injured Valiramix in the Champion Hurdle and spooked him – who remembers that despicable act nowadays? Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins have been involved in drugs scandals – how often do those come up? Karl Burke was banned for passing inside information – who remembered that when Laurens was the feelgood story? Dettori and Fallon endangered others by riding in races while under the influence of cocaine.
There are hundreds of flawed men in this sport, all hardened beyond what we’d call ordinary and decent by the gritty realities of what they do. We accept it because we’re flawed ourselves and enjoy watching and betting on fragile animals being raced around a track for money. I’ve come to terms with my own selfishness in that respect and think others need to own it in their own hearts as well.
I think it’s more about harsh realities than cruelty or neglect. A trainer with a string of 150+ horses deals with fatal injuries all too often and accepts it as part of the job. Perhaps that’s why he’s overly matter-of-fact about the situation. There even seems to be a stable joke about Elliott’s weight on the image caption – “he must have been riding this one and it’s carked it” sort of thing. There’s still no reason to suspect this horse was treated badly in life although obviously shown very little respect in death.
If it’s genuine (and it seems to be), it’s a trainer called down to the gallops to oversee things after a fatal accident to a stable lesser light. Elliott’s main supporter Gigginstown are totally cutthroat and lacking sentiment even with horses who have done them a good service. It’s an ugly reality of the sport: these big operations are all business.
It’s a horrible image and reflects badly on the man but which specific rule does it prove has been broken?
I understand the horse in the image is Morgan (owned by Gigginstown, died 2019).
Sounds like it is real – the date and name of the horse have been identified.
I don’t think anything is really likely to come from it. It’s unsavoury, inappropriate and disrespectful to the horse but there’s nothing to suggest any direct welfare concern. Probably worse consequences to come for the member of yard staff who leaked it from an embarrassed trainer.
One of my horses dropped dead on the gallops in France and a picture was taken where it fell for insurance purposes. Although there was no trainer straddling it grinning and doing a peace sign!
I think the youngsters at the Racing Post need support and encouragement. It’s insipid and lightweight at times (a symptom of the way the paper has gone) but I hope the likes of Maddy Playle and Kitty Trice in particular are getting some benefit from the dying embers.
I predict the RP will be gone within two years so I think we need to look for whatever positives we can find. In spite of the last few years of the RP lightening its load, there is still a huge amount of utter dreck on its books. Their race analysts and tipster squad in particular are terribly lightweight and irrelevant versus what you see at Timeform, ATR or the Sporting Life.
But there are three or four in their early 20s who you’d like to think will make a proper mark in years to come. So I think everyone needs to lay off those individuals even if they aren’t quite ready yet – they’ll get there. There are plenty of 30-, 40- and older-somethings on the RP books producing substandard work much more deserving of criticism.
I nearly came to blows with the guy at an event a few years ago.
I better not get into specifics but I think he’s a huge hypocrite – how he can take some of the positions he does while accepting others and behaving the way he does seems quite false to me.
Personally I never really enjoyed Mr Cook’s output and think some of the praise is overblown, but it’s never nice to see somebody out of work. I hope he and his family make it through to the other side. It sounds like he is a very popular person, so I doubt he will be on the shelf for too long.
I wonder (and indeed, shamefully, hope) whether Greg Wood will be following Cook out the door. I think he’s the biggest hypocrite in racing.
Gutless decision, absolutely awful, common sense MIA as usual from this sport’s decisionmakers.
When we’re lamenting abysmal prize money and moaning about owners and trainers leaving the sport in their droves in the next year, we can all thank those who made or supported this call for playing their part. That’s a huge amount of money missing from the sport’s coffers.
Sold, I like the look of it.
I watched it back and he ran really well. Pretty much ran the same race as the well-backed Butler horse who finished just in front of him, just began his run from slightly further back.
I give up, kid – I don’t think you grasp what I’m saying. Have you noticed the little numbers on the right of the racecard?
They’re called ratings. They are used to compare horses in terms of their level of ability.
Native River won a very poor Gold Cup, beating a very poor King George winner, in specialist conditions that were much better suited to him than most other horses in the race.
Of all the Gold Cup winners since the year 1999, I would only place Lord Windermere and Synchronised below him.
Native River is an admirable horse. I like him. I’d love to have him in my back garden. He’s tough, he’s consistent, he has lasted a long time.
But if we’re talking about ratings and basic ability, he’s a sub-average Gold Cup winner. I don’t think that’s a particularly controversial summary of Native River.
I think you’re wrong, HDLG. I’m not saying Native River or Al Boum Photo aren’t in the top 0.2% or whatever of staying chasers. They clearly are. But if you’re rating them against other Gold Cup winners, I think they’d be in the bottom half.
It’s like Best Mate, isn’t it? On bare ratings, he was not a truly great Gold Cup winner. He had some great qualities for consistency and jumping and he won the thing three times, but on actual performances he was just a bit better than mediocre.
