Standards of animal welfare hit a new low at Brighton Racecourse

Raise The Game’s death was evidently not even regarded as serious enough to warrant any visible interest from the Brighton race-day stewards or for any explanation to be made public as to why and how he died.

What was also significant about this race was that the first four horses – Lutine Charlie, Corporal Maddox, Tidal’s Baby and Time Medicean – were all whipped excessively by their jockeys, above the permitted seven strikes. The stewards only penalised two of the jockeys for their abusive whip use; the two others got away without reprisal.

Another runner, Majestic Girl, was having her second exhausting race at the course within the space of 24 hours.

Animal Aid sees this race at Brighton as an example of the poor treatment and welfare standards that horses receive from the racing industry. There are serious welfare questions about six of the nine runners in the race.

On a wider scale, close to 200 horses are killed each year on British racecourses and nearly 500 cases of whip abuse occur – action needs to be taken to put a halt to this.

Says Animal Aid’s Horse Racing Consultant, Dene Stansall:

‘This is one of the worst races I’ve seen for a long time. If ever there was an example of how poorly regulated the welfare of horses is within racing, it was seen last Thursday afternoon at Brighton racecourse. This is not acceptable. If the British Horseracing Authority – racing’s regulator – is serious about horses’ welfare, it needs to act promptly and ban the use of the whip and make every effort to prevent horses being killed. If it does not do this, the welfare of race horses should be taken out of its control.’

Editors’ Notes

• For more information contact Dene Stansall on 01732 364546
• For a list of all the horses killed on racecourses this year, visit Race Horse Deathwatch