On Sunday, 17 November, three horses died in the span of an hour at Cheltenham. Abuffalosoldier, the winning steed, collapsed just as the ITV Racing channel began the post-race interview. The deaths of Bangers and Cash and Napper Tandy were also broadcast, calling attention to an ongoing problem with untimely deaths in a relatively niche sport.
Horse racing has long been associated with wealth; flashy suits, ostentatious hats, and several hundred-thousand-pound competitors post-mark the sport for the upper-class. Most of the money in racing, however, comes from gambling and breeding as a winning pedigree means owners make big bucks loaning them out as parents. The UK racing industry registered 4,714 new foals in 2020 alone, according to The Guardian.
The emphasis on breeding means horses are treated as commodities serving a larger operation, instead of as individual animals. Sure, the owners and trainers may love them individually, but these horses are also athletes and investments. A star striker on a football team might be treated well while they can run, but if they shatter their ankle they’re not exactly useful anymore.
For that reason, lots of money goes into keeping horses race-ready and uninjured – but that doesn’t necessarily mean their health is a priority. The overuse of painkillers before races means veterinarians can not always accurately diagnose injuries, dirt tracks increase risk of injury, and most race before they are even adults. The thoroughbreds that race in the Kentucky Derby, for example, must be exactly three years of age, but the breed isn’t fully mature until four. Racing and training before adulthood can cause repeated trauma to the legs and joints before horses’ growth plates set, detrimentally impacting their health in the long-term, which ultimately raises concerns that the age at which the horses compete impacts their lifespans.
Racing horses can live up to their twenties, but it’s rare to hear about a horse competing after the age of ten. Unfortunately, statistics on racehorse lifespans, deaths, and injuries are difficult to find and broadly untraceable. If something happens to a horse during training or after they leave the racing industry, it’s near impossible to determine if the incident was part of a broader pattern.
The deaths of the three horses at Cheltenham were all tragedies, and obviously, nobody in the horse racing industry takes pleasure in the sight of the beautiful animals they raised collapsing violently. Unfortunately, this was not a freak accident, but a known and intolerable consequence of a sports industry that puts animals in the line of fire in the pursuit of monetary reward.
Photo Credits: “National Hunt Racing Horse” by Paolo Camera is licensed under CC BY 2.0.