The way this affair was handled was nothing short of totally incompetent by Cheltenham racecourse and all concerned. If the “recent staggering change in climate” was a factor then the whole card should have been abandoned and so should all the other meetings when last weekend it was 9 degrees and this week it is 20+ degrees. I note that Fontwell’s meeting on Friday afternoon is still taking place as I write. Same change of climate just 24 hours later. Surely running two miles over hurdles or fences in the extreme temperatures would be more dangerous as the horses travel faster (having less distance to travel) and run up the hill to the winning post quicker. In the racecard, is there a note stating that if the meeting is abandoned before half the card has been run, all customers are entitled to a refund of half their ticket price? Clearly the vets have instant forensic powers. The horse that died of exhaustion definitely died because of heat exhaustion, a fact that has been established without an autopsy to show that the horse did not die as a result of some other contributory factor that caused it to become exhausted. All the other runners survived the ordeal. Just as well Jezza was not there to demand that they provide evidence to support their conclusion. The old adage is correct: an expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less.
I think the most sensible (and informative) quote I heard was from Dan Skelton on RUK, who said that most of his horses still have a fairly thick coat and that makes running in such temperatures more dangerous, particularly over extreme distances. We all know what it feels like when you are dressed too warmly on a summer's day, luckily we can just take our coats off but it isn't that quick and easy for the horses. I do think they should have cancelled the rest of the card but I am certainly no vet or expert on horses.
If these temperatures remain until Sunday then I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a fatality amongst the 40k runners in the London marathon. So let's cancel that.
They won't be running in fur coats with a bloke on their backs whipping them to go faster though Chan
