Today is my annual post about the Grand
National. Some of you will read it, some
won’t. Some will look at the blog title
and turn away, not wanting my post to spoil your once a year bet on the Grand
National. I am hoping that at least one
of you reads this post and changes your mind about betting, forever.
I want to give you some names.
Comeonginger. Here All Along. Cadoudoff.
Al Reesha. Athletic. Sensible Simpson.
Sound familiar? Probably not.
But these are the names of six horses who have died in the past week in
UK horse racing. Two died from a broken neck. Three destroyed due to leg breaks. One died from a heart attack.
Animal Aid began a record of the death of
horses 10 years ago at the Cheltenham Festival.
Since then, 1523 horses have died. That is 3 horses, every single
week.
This weekend is the Grand National. Families
and co-workers get together at this time of year and choose their horses from
sweepstakes or by finding the name of the horse they like best. Jokes are made about who will pick the one
who ends up falling. After the race, you
will not even remember the horse’s name, except if it won you some money.
Did somebody bet on Comeonginger yesterday because of the funny name? He died of a
broken neck on the course. Did someone choose Athletic
because he sounded like a good bet? His
broken hind leg rendered him useless to the world of horse racing and he was
“destroyed”.
Was your £5.00 bet worth the life of a
horse? Will it be on Saturday?
They say every year that the course is
made safer. But they cannot deny that in
a race which is entered by the best race horses in the country, less than half
have managed to complete the course in the past 3 years.
Last year, out of the 41 horses that
started the race, only 16 finished it. The successful ones make it to the end and are whipped to the finish line. Riders in the Grand National are actually
required to carry a whip in order to race.
I was talking about horse racing last week
and someone said to me “If we don’t use them for horse racing, what are horses
for?” Horses do not exist for our
entertainment. They do not need a reason
to exist, just like us.
You will either place a bet tomorrow or
you won't. My words will either affect you, or they won't. But my
mission, as it has been every year on this blog, is to give you the facts, and
let you make up your own mind.
I ask you a question, as a national of so
called animal lovers, are we not better than this?