Tears of a Clown killed at Royal Ascot 2008

The five-year-old gelding pulled up injured during the two-and-a-half mile Ascot Stakes race. Out of sight of Queen and thousands of other race-goers, the horse was silently destroyed.

BBC TV chose to focus on the celebrations of the winning connections, in their extensive coverage of the meeting, whilst not devoting a single sentence to the fatally injured horse.

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

‘The death of Tears Of A Clown has, despite the secrecy of the BBC and Ascot racecourse, not gone unnoticed. His death is now entered in our list of more than 200 other horses who have been killed on British racecourses in just over a year. Regardless of the prestige of the Royal Ascot meeting, it is, for the horses involved, just another killing field.’