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and no thanks to me who forgot to select for the Yorkshire Cup. I didn’t realise our league was also competing. Cringing apologies to all
Eclipse’s skeleton is at the Royal Veterinary College in London (though it was loaned to the Horseracing Museum for a time when it first opened). There is some doubt about its authenticity and suggestions that it may include bones from other horses, fuelled by the existence of at least 5 contemporary hooves of Eclipse!
A bit harsh. It’s true that the most impressive horses on show were probably the ones pulling the Harveys Brewery dray but it was a decent crowd, good facilities, the weather was perfect and everyone seemed to be having a nice time. A lot of first time race-goers will probably be back, which is presumably the idea. Not the finest quality racing but I’ve had worse days out at the races and had to pay a lot of money for them!
Excellent. I can understand why they wanted to run it before the Cheltenham highlights but shame it was on so late. Best social history documentary Channel 4 has shown for some time – the racing interest is a bonus!
I am afraid that at least a small part of the answer to these statistics must be the prestige of the Cheltenham Festival (and I am not saying this is the case with any of the tragic incidents of this year’s festival).
If a trainer/owner feels that the horse isn’t 100% ready for a race at Hexham, they will withdraw it without question. Likewise, if a jockey is unhappy with a horse during a race, pulling it up early on at Hexham is an easy option. The pressure of big meetings and the chance of winning a once-in-a-career race is a different matter.
However, this isn’t just a jump racing problem. As a keen follower of flat and jump racing for 40 odd years, deaths during races seem to be increasing, despite the advances in veterinary medicine which should have seen their substantial reduction. There have always been horror falls like that of poor Our Conor but these days it seems that, even at flat meetings, you’ve got a good chance of seeing horses die on the track in apparently innocuous incidents. I don’t know whether it is changes in training methods, breeding, track design, watering or just coincidence but am concerned that it is constantly being dismissed as "that’s racing" and anybody asking questions branded an "animal rights" nutter, when clearly some objective, scientific investigation is surely justified.
Saw this and wondered where he’d been since retiring. 27 is a good age so clearly well looked after. Loved this old fellow. RIP
