It has been a week since the most deadly Grand National in recent years. The horse race at Aintree Racecourse accounted for two horse deaths, and yesterday its Scottish equivalent accounted for two more. The events at Aintree were even more shocking because unusually they were caught graphically on national television. It has left me reconsidering my own relationship with the sport.
Racing has been personal to me for many years. I loved the sport as a child. In particular, the spectacle of the Grand National captivated me. The flat, and events such as The Epsom Derby, seemed uneventful by comparison. In my early adult years, I chose to work in the industry.
It was there where I learned how barbaric the sport really is. Betting shops up and down the land show dozens of horse races every day from a number of courses. The coverage is more saturated than ever. Yet even at smaller courses, with fences nowhere near as formidable as those Grand National obstacles, horses are routinely killed. With clearly fewer cameras than those used on a big race day, betting shop customers are fully exposed to the horrors of horse racing - on the screen.
These horrors take different forms. Some horses break their legs and the viewers witness them struggling, unsuccessfully, to return to their feet. On rare occasions, a doomed horse may be able to get back to its feet, where viewers are then 'treated' to the sight of a soon-to-be-dead creature hobbling around with a snapped and dangling leg impeding its gallop.
A horse breaking its back is more unpleasant still. The horse may be able to lift its head before returning it to the canvas trying to comprehend why its body is busted.
Luckier horses die instantly, particularly if they land on their head and break their necks. The signal here is the post-death spasm when an already-dead animal shudders violently, legs quivering. Again, all captured on live racing feeds going into the betting shops.
The only obituary these dead animals receive is a 'dead' comment in the race results in the following day's racing industry press. For example: Horse Name (fell); started strongly, mistake first fence, fell 3rd, dead. Lovely.
Many betting shop customers are immune to it. As one such punter disturbingly responded to an obvious horse fatality, 'that horse has just killed itself'. Yes, it was the horse's fault for jumping the fence like a fool.
Unlike such heartless souls, I never really built up an immunity to it. I have always seen it as an unacceptable feature of a sport I assume will always be here. As the sport is always going to be here, then reform is needed.
The issue of horse fatalities has now reached the public consciousness, but not just because this year's Grand National meeting was significantly more brutal than previous events. Twenty horses have died on the Grand National course since 2000 - a shocking record for a course which is only substantially used twice annually.
It has reached the public consciousness because this time the cameras did not miss the carnage as they usually do. The viewers, therefore, were subjected to a sample of what the betting shop customer is frequently exposed to.
During the race, as the horses thundered around the circuit for the second time, a decision was taken to bypass the two fences where the two horses were killed on the first circuit. I have no idea why this course of action was chosen - I cannot recall it ever being taken in the race previously. As a result, the dead horses were not scraped off the track and dumped to the side, off-camera, as they usually would be.
As the fence was bypassed, viewers witnessed a bulge on the floor in front of the fence itself covered in a sheet. Two fences later, the horses bypassed another fence where screens had been erected to protect public eyes from what was occurring behind them.
It does not take a great mind, nor a knowledgeable racing enthusiast to deduce the horrors those canopies were covering.
The resulting uproar has demonstrated just how unacceptable this is to the general public. It is no exaggeration to say the sport lost many casual fans last Saturday, particularly those more sheltered from the danger the race brings.
Following the race, the industry has closed ranks with the usual excuses. 'The horses love it or they would not do it' is one. 'They get a good quality of life and are pampered' is another. This is a little like saying 'I have a slave, yes, but he is very well fed and has nice living quarters, so he can be grateful for my benevolence'.
These excuses will not wash this time. Racing simply must act. Softening the Aintree fences has not stemmed the flow of deaths as the above statistic testifies. There are many more precautions that could be taken. Firstly, are some of the horses good enough to do what is being asked of them? Secondly, what can be done to ensure the race is run on softer ground, which ought to provide a slightly safer landing?
Change is difficult without a plurality of voices though. Despite the outrage, I can only recall one notable opponent by name, and that is Andrew Tyler, whose Animal Aid organisation has been campaigning against the race, and jump racing in general, for many years. His voice has been heard on the radio and television, and his words have been read in the press. However, without plurality, Tyler will be treated dismissively by the guardians of racing's reputation as a minority voice against the sport. The usual excuses will continue to be wheeled out.
True, the tabloid press reported the deaths and gave a public voice to public outrage, but this is mainly for the benefit of powerful headlines. These same publications were printing sweepstakes for the race earlier in the week and will do so again next year, along with the usual free bet offers. They are unreliable allies.
Where are the other voices? Where are the other animal welfare organisations? Where are the politicians? There must be one MP in that house in Westminster who finds the treatment of this revered animal as objectionable as the hunting down and savagery of the fox.
Once a range of voices emerge, the issue will suddenly become too potent to ignore. It moves from animal welfare groups, to the media and eventually the public. When it does, other issues regarding racing animals soon emerge.
Thousands of thoroughbreds are bred every year. Many will never make the grade as a racehorse. Those that do join thousands of other horses on the track until they are no longer competitive. No calculator is required to realise that many of these spent horses will not be happily running around on fields when they are deemed not worthy of racing.
Since horse meat is a continental delicacy, my guess is a significant number end up at the abattoir to be slaughtered for their meat. Suddenly the Grand National fatalities seem small fry, excuse the pun.
Despite everything, racing has a future and can have a virtuous future. It is a massively popular spectator sport. In a reversal of my childhood, these days my passion has shifted to the flat, for reasons above. The biggest races on the flat calendar are high-value events involving high-value animals. These horses truly are revered, and many will have a career in breeding after they are finished on the race track.
It is worth noting though that the emotional value of these horses is always proportional to their financial value. There will always be more tears, more column inches in the racing press and more statements about the loss of a beloved animal, if that dead animal was successful on the track and worth a lot of money. These deaths are less common on the flat, for flat racing does have a far lower attrition rate of horses than the jumps.
There is too much racing though, and it leads to horses being over-bred and used as cheap commodities. With so much racing, the lowest value races have prizes of less than £2,000 to the owners of the winner. What use is that to a horse owner?
Applying market theory, fewer racing events will increase the value of the events, the horses and the race meetings. Betting shops may be less enthusiastic though - having race events constantly going off keeps the wheels turning on a race day. As things stand though, there is something of the market failure about horse racing, with the main victims being the horses themselves. Therefore, racing must get its house in order. The public are now aware of the death and destruction surrounding the sport - and are not about to forget.
