[Tonge]

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.

[Tonge]

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

[Tonge]

The race report in Monday’s Post says Sizing Rio "was in trouble after three out and picked up a fatal injury". Pity it wasn’t considered worth mentioning on the web site.

[Author]

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