Aintree starts

I didn’t realise I wasn’t posting on this thread 🤦🏻‍♀️
I’ve turned off since that race. I cannot believe that Paul Townend, a highly experienced horseman, could not feel that his horse wasn’t right after the last. We could see it, so surely he could feel it?
 
I do feel slightly like when ever some thing go's wrong the commentry assumes the viewers are clueless.

I also kind of get how you may in the situation just being able to see the finish line get a bit caught up in the moment. I was shocked to hear it was a broken back, I asusmed from watching it would be pelvis

*in no way am i saying its ok, just i think that's what happened
 
And yet when Rachel Blackmore did something similar at Cheltenham a few years back (and much further from the finish line) she was praised for her horsemanship.

I'm not in any sense trying to defend Paul Townend and it wasn't a pleasant watch but how on earth can you make a reasoned decision in a high pressure environment like that when the adrenaline is running?
 
The horse would have been pts after the race anyway and I suspect all his connections are quite happy about it seeing as he won nearly £70000.
I also doubt he felt any pain with Adrenalin and so on but visually it’s just exactly what the sport doesn’t need and it was despicable to watch.
And they showed the rerun so we all got to see it twice!
 
I vividly remember and this was years ago now a friend riding a horse who was the favourite and in the lead. Horse jumped and obviously went wrong. He tried (visibly) to pull up but it didnt happen instantly. He did pull up but kind of baled out and pulled it up from the floor almost.
The abuse he got was unbelivable. Both sides, not pulling up instantly and for pulling up whilst in the lead (presumably those who had money on him) It was really horrible
 
I also put this in the other thread - not the sort of publicity racing needs and it's now gone straight to the mass media. Whatever you think of the Mail it is a well read online paper site.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Aintree horse Gold Dancer put down after breaking his back in win

Gold Dancer fell at the final hurdle, but recovered to limp over the line to victory. The six-year-old was being ridden by Paul Townend, who continued to whip the horse after its fall.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk

"whipping it over the line" not a good look when the horse has died....
 
reynold said:
I also put this in the other thread - not the sort of publicity racing needs and it's now gone straight to the mass media. Whatever you think of the Mail it is a well read online paper site.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Aintree horse Gold Dancer put down after breaking his back in win

Gold Dancer fell at the final hurdle, but recovered to limp over the line to victory. The six-year-old was being ridden by Paul Townend, who continued to whip the horse after its fall.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk

"whipping it over the line" not a good look when the horse has died....
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He wasn’t six, it wasnt a hurdle race and he didn’t fall. Our media are just printing any old rubbish.
 
Ok so listening to that welfare man on itv.
I agree the horse didn’t deviate from a straight line and we only saw the side view. If I’m not feeling cynical (which I am) it may be that he felt perfectly normal to the jockey. They aren’t sitting in the saddle and perhaps the almost flapping hind limb gait wasn’t noticed.
It seems odd that there was no loss of power and forwards momentum at all.
A very sad day. I’ve not enjoyed watching.
 
Horrific. Jockey should be banned for life and prize money withheld/donated to ROR charity with lots of investigations to find out why this happened.

Thing with racing is, if as many of the jockeys died as the horses, it'd be banned immediatly. There are two hearts starting each race, there should be two hearts finishing it too.
 
Trot_on said:
Horrific. Jockey should be banned for life and prize money withheld/donated to ROR charity with lots of investigations to find out why this happened.

Thing with racing is, if as many of the jockeys died as the horses, it'd be banned immediatly. There are two hearts starting each race, there should be two hearts finishing it too.
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The authorities did investigate and said the jockey wasn’t to blame.
 
Clodagh said:
And I do trust them enough that I think they would have thrown the book at him if it was deserved.
Still a horrible thing.
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This totally, they are very keen to be seen to be doing the right thing and this is terrible publicity. I don’t think anyone is to be blamed but that won’t stop all negativity
 
Bonny - it doesn't matter if the Mail story was accurate. All that will be seen by the non-racing/horsey readers is that a horse that had 'fallen' (it didn't) was 'whipped over the line to its death'.

There is already a thread in the Tack Room saying much the same as this based on a Racing Post article.

Stories don't have to be accurate to do damage. The counter story to any erroneous bad press on any subject never gets the same prominence as the original damaging article....
 
Clodagh said:
Ok so listening to that welfare man on itv.
I agree the horse didn’t deviate from a straight line and we only saw the side view. If I’m not feeling cynical (which I am) it may be that he felt perfectly normal to the jockey. They aren’t sitting in the saddle and perhaps the almost flapping hind limb gait wasn’t noticed.
It seems odd that there was no loss of power and forwards momentum at all.
A very sad day. I’ve not enjoyed watching.
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I’m afraid I’m cynical like you. The welfare man was always going to say what he said. It would have been an extremely brave person to say anything else live on TV.
I really do nt know how ITV can keep trying to defend horse racing. I’ve been a huge NH fan right from watching Red Rum hundreds of years ago. I can’t watch it now
 
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I also thought i was posting on this thread

The horse was clearly "wrong" after the fence, and a jockey of PT experience should have felt that, hes ridden so many horses

Would he have pulled up if he wasn't leading? It is wrong he would have been slated by all the "punters" with 10s of thousands on the horse if hed pulled up

The outcome may well have been the same given the poor horse broke his back, but we cant know for sure that riding him to the finish potentially exacerbated something

It makes it even worse he used his whip. Plays right into the headlines hands.

The owner (who i dislike anyway) rep was quick to defend the jockey as well. Then we have the welfare rep saying just because the horse was travelling straight jockey couldn't possibly have known. Feels like a cover up, brushed under the carpet, because they KNOW how bad it looks

The poor horse had such a sweet face and was almost too honest

I no longer ride and was always shocking at spotting lameness but I landed mine in the middle of a 60cm spread once and thought hed broken a leg instantly on moving away from the jump, it was an awful feeling like nothing id ever felt before (he was actually fine after a minute or 2 but until then i thought hed at best done a tendon). I am no means a professional jockey but could feel it. If a horse is that broken he needs euthanising, surely adrenaline can only cover up so much. Even the commentator could tell something was wrong

Apparently, although I haven't seen it, there's footage of Harry Cobden tell him after the line the horse had gone wrong. Seen it in comments in various places HOWEVER HAVE NOT SEEN IT SO CANT CONFIRM

There's been a couple of photos of the poor lad pop up, his back end is completely sat down surely after a "mistake" of that magnitude you cant be completely sure all is ok e.g. internally
 
Is the welfare man going to risk coming out on TV, when comments are already circulating and admit that yes the horse was moving wrong and yet was still whipped to the finish. Or would they try and cover it up when all eyes are on it to try and minimise what happened and blame people not knowing what they are talking about and nope he was just fine
 
Tiddlypom said:
“All in the name of sport 🤬. Driving a fatally injured horse to the line for the win.

Totally sickening. How can the so called horse lovers on here keep watching this abhorrence.”

And a so called top jockey too.
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I used to enjoy watching racing with my Uncle. I stopped many years ago - this sickens me to the core.
 
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