3,000 horses killed due to racing as Epsom Derby Festival begins

Posted on the 5th June 2025

Animal Aid has named over three thousand race horses who have been killed as a result of racing on British racecourses.

This Friday and Saturday (6th and 7th June) is the Epsom Derby Festival – a two-day flat-race meeting which sees horses running for their lives to the tune of gambling, fancy outfits and flowing alcohol. As the horses, known to the industry as world leading, are about to take part in this year’s Derby, a sinister and opaque veil hangs over the racing industry – that of its dead.

*since the start of Race Horse Death Watch, 13th March 2007

Outside of the Grand National and Cheltenham Festival, very little information is in the public domain relating to the deaths of horses in racing. The most reliable documentation is provided by Animal Aid on its dedicated website.

In just over six and a half thousand days, three thousand race horses have lost their lives approximating to one death nearly every two days. Behind this shocking statistic is suffering that has been largely ignored by politicians and a number of leading horse and animal welfare organisations. There is also a lack of information and effective action from racing’s regulator, the British Horseracing Authority. This as a whole, is a default position that shamefully disregards innate cruelty to horses who race.

Last year, Tears Of A Clown collapsed and died during the Epsom Derby. Black sheets were reportedly placed around her to hide her suffering from the watching crowds. This is symbolic of the greater deception by the racing industry. They hide animal suffering behind screens, fancy marketing, misleading statistics and empty rhetoric. But this façade is starting to slip, and the social license is slowly expiring.

Says Dene Stansall, Animal Aid’s Horse Racing Consultant

‘The racing industry led by the British Horseracing Authority has failed the only essential component to their existence – the horse. They’ve treated horses in cruel and callus ways; disposable objects who come and go in vast numbers.

‘Animal grief is played out every week on racecourses and to the contrary, the racing industry feel comfortable in the support they have from politicians, World Horse Welfare, and the RSPCA. Hiding behind this shield has led to a stagnant situation that is, literally, a dead-end for horses.

‘Animal Aid has rebuked the industry with determination and resilience, but vital support is needed from the media to expose race horse cruelty that has led to three thousand equine victims.’

How you can help horses and end horse racing:

 Take the pledge to never attend or bet on horse racing 
Read our newly published report – Victims of Abuse in British Horse Racing 
Order our new ‘You Bet They Die’ campaign t-shirt! 
 Visit Animal Aid’s Race Horse Death Watch site 
Order campaign resources such as leaflets and posters by emailing info@animalaid.org.uk 
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