Very sad loss of two horses at Southwell

Very tragic, you feel for all the connections especially for the stable staff who look after the horses. These people go into racing because they love horses when they lose one it's like losing a good friend.

Although I would have been happy to lose all my stake if the horses had been OK I did have a good bet on Marrkirr and a saver on Kelly's Eye. definitely not a lucky day for any of us

always sad

and always looks really bad when they get stuck under stalls like kellys eye

Feel gutted now after that race, losing bets mean nothing to me...............

Very sad to see. Was looking forward to Kelly's Eye going back to Ripon this summer. I just hope they weren't too hasty in writing him off and he wasn't just very badly knocked out. I can't say i really saw the rearing incident but if it involved  the blindfold still being on then it just furthers my call for all blindfolds to be banned. 'Trained ' horses will walk in unblindfolded, practice practice practice, that's what training fees are paid for. Look at the major stables runners here and racing abroad, you hardly ever see a blindfold.

swiftnifty

You are totally spot on. Too many horses nowadays are not trained enough for stalls entry and the stalls remain alien to them throughout their careers.

But, on the other hand, abroad (US in particular) have wider stalls and less problems. We, though, have tighter stalls because they need to be transported around the tracks in the regions they serve. It is a shame that each track don't have their own stalls - it would cost but one of the big bookies could easily meet the cost instead of sponsoring races. Their name could then be plastered on the stalls. With each track having their own stalls they could be wider.

swiftnifty

You are totally spot on. Too many horses nowadays are not trained enough for stalls entry and the stalls remain alien to them throughout their careers.

But, on the other hand, abroad (US in particular) have wider stalls and less problems. We, though, have tighter stalls because they need to be transported around the tracks in the regions they serve. It is a shame that each track don't have their own stalls - it would cost but one of the big bookies could easily meet the cost instead of sponsoring races. Their name could then be plastered on the stalls. With each track having their own stalls they could be wider.

Apparently Kellys Eye suffered a suspected fractured skull. The owners decided it was kinder to put the poor animal out of any further distress.

The Knight, your idea sounds the perfect solution with a permanent sponsorship of the stalls by whoever funded it. But you can bet the on-the-day sponsor wouldn't stand for it, usual racing politics at work and working against the benefit of racing.

Clacker, that sounds horrid, all very sad.

very sad to hear of the fatalities today, i totally agree we have to look at the stalls and find better ones but i have to say the standard of the stall handlers in uk today is shocking, there seems to be no urgency to load them up as quick as possible and as a result you have horses waiting 4/5 mins in stall , you look at the way the operate in france , s .africa and states, there is a urgency and willingness to get job done, also i think there is a need to have few bigger and strongler handlers for loading. there will be the apologists on here who say that the handlers here are great horsemen but this is pure tripe , just go and look at the loading here on a daily basis and you 'll see its very sub standard

r.i.p

very sad