Chilly at Carlisle this afternoon; very chilly however delighted with our novices Orkney Blue and Scarlet Jet, each ending 4th in first rate firm and giving us lots to stay up for.  On to Hexham tomorrow assuming it passes an 8am inspection.  The bottom is nice which received’t do for Half Observe so our sole runner is prone to be Spectress making her racecourse debut within the bumper at 3.30.  She’s a properly bred, engaging younger mare with an excellent perspective which can stand her in good stead however is prone to be inexperienced tomorrow having by no means been away from residence – 6 run and Bruce rides.

Spectress

A lot has been fabricated from the dreadful lack of three horses in a brief area of time at Cheltenham on Sunday afternoon.  For 2 to break down with suspected cardiac arrests in the identical race was an terrible coincidence and half an hour later a 3rd suffered a deadly damage when falling at a hurdle.  It utterly took away from what had as much as then been three large days’ racing and rightly has us questioning ourselves.  Sadly in racing, or for those who hold animals in any respect, it’s one thing it’s important to deal with, it’s a part of the deal, in any other case they wouldn’t exist.  I quote certainly one of our House owners right here following a fatality we had eighteen months in the past; he put it extra eloquently than I ever may – “Time sufficient for the shock to subside . The contract we’ve with these superb creatures entails offering them with the utmost care , consideration and love , in change for his or her most bodily effort on the racecourse . Leaping obstacles at velocity is inherently harmful , so the unstated clause requires them to threat their very lives.”

The extremely promisng Duyfken who received 2 of his 12 hurdles and died as a 5yo final week.

To place the figures into perspective soar racing has a fatality fee of 0.42% (112 horses from 29,947 runners in 2023); we’ve very sadly misplaced three horses on the racecourse over the past three seasons – That’s a Given, Chanting Hill and Kellerman – every a kind of accidents sits in my reminiscence as if it was yesterday. That’s from 495 runners so 0.6%; larger than the typical however we had been blessed with a transparent run for a number of seasons previous to that so general in all probability effectively beneath the typical.  Nonetheless we even have accidents at residence, two sit in my thoughts – Benny’s Secret kicked within the subject in 2021 and solely final week we misplaced Duyfken, a promising younger horse who since Might had bravely battled a severe damage incurred within the subject.  Very often we lose horses to colic and we misplaced Little Glenshee to pneumonia final winter after one other lengthy battle.  It’s horrible each time however it’s a actuality, as is dropping horses on the racecourse.  Horses will die, my conscience rests on how we glance after them whereas they’re alive, how we deal with them in adversity and within the information that if we didn’t do what we do, they wouldn’t exist.