Animal Aid statement on Royal Ascot: heat wave created unacceptable risk to horse’s lives
Royal Ascot ends the life of at least one horse, with multiple whip offences also seen at this year’s event.
Posted 20 Jun 2022

Posted on the 26th March 2010
Unique research by national campaign group Animal Aid demonstrates that a horse dies on a British racecourse approximately every other day.
Race Horse Deathwatch was started in March 2007. Since that time, nearly 500 horses have perished – typically, from a broken limb or neck; severe tendon injuries; spinal injuries; or a heart attack. The latest Deathwatch summary, published this week, reveals that Sedgefield Racecourse has killed most horses and that, across Britain, jumps racing is more than four times as dangerous as racing on the Flat.
Says Animal Aid Horse Racing Consultant, Dene Stansall:
‘That race horses routinely die horrific deaths on British racecourses is the industry’s dirty secret. As shocking as our statistics are, they do not account for all the deaths on racecourses and in training. We challenge the industry regulatory body, the British Horseracing Authority, to come clean with the public and publish a full account of all horse injuries and deaths, so that people can make their own judgement about what we regard as an inherently exploitative industry.’
Race Horse Deathwatch was launched during the 2007 Cheltenham Festival. Its purpose is to record every on-course Thoroughbred fatality in Britain.
The British Horseracing Authority is the industry’s regulatory body. It has failed to put detailed horse death information into the public domain. When equine fatalities have come to the media’s attention, they are frequently dismissed as ‘accidental’ and ‘unexplained’. And when several horses die at a single meeting, terms such as ‘statistical blip’ are often deployed.
Animal Aid has recorded 497 on-course Thoroughbred deaths since the start of Race Horse Deathwatch, three seasons ago. The animals died, typically, from a broken limb or neck; severe tendon injuries; spinal injuries; or a heart attack. This equates to approximately one horse killed for every two days of racing.
Royal Ascot ends the life of at least one horse, with multiple whip offences also seen at this year’s event.
Posted 20 Jun 2022
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Posted 19 Jun 2022
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