Yeah its a common misconception in recent years. It took far too long for them to listen to calls from the outside sadly. Its telling once they softened the fences, reduced the distance, horses stopped dying. The brutal reality is that up until 2013 those complaining about animal welfare were 100% right. The horses were tired, jumping huge obstacles, and as a result fatalities were occurring. The unfortunate thing is that the time taken to change has left a stigma attached to the race - horse racing has to accept responsibility for that. Horses do die in the course of racing. Its not nice and for some even 1 death will always be unpalatable regardless if this is what the animals are bred for.
Was at Sedgefield races donkeys years ago. Coming down the hill towards the finish a horse broke its front leg on a hurdle. Jockey made the poor ****er jump another hurdle before he pulled it up. Out came the tarp, 5 mins later, BANG! Brutal.
After backing horses for nigh on 50 years, I never thought I'd see the day, but, she is some special jockey, as is the horse. Up there with the great races.
It's a cruel race... I don't like it... Whipping horses to within an inch of their lives and then acting like they've achieved something.
They should introduce a rule where if the horse has to be put down the owner, jockey and trainer do as well - be interesting to see how many of them would wish to continue in the business.
The jockey was rushed to hospital on blue lights, and quite often the jockey gets hurt when the horse doesn't. It's only ever the owners and trainers that are never in any danger.
I used to quite enjoy it when the horse refused to jump a fence and the jockey ended up getting thrown either into or over the top of the fence.