English people and dead animals

Sorry but having just come in and seen the Aintree fiasco today. It was nothing short of disgusting.

Tony McCoy should have got off the horse, the horse is dead now. Dead a Gold Cup Winner dead. The horse antics beforehand showed he was not in the frame of mind to race. I have never liked McCoy and I always believe he puts his own personal agenda ahead of the horse.

First time ever looking at the national race and trying to justify to myself and others how this is sport. I could not come up with a reason and there lies the tale. Horses die and Horses fall but Horses that refuse to be involved that are being forced to race is barbaric and nothing better than playing russian roulette.

New rules need to be in place, any horse that is loose before a race should not start and any horse that dumps a jockey should not race.

Why was the tape just over the horses head that caused the horse to spook in the first place........A few other horses jinked at the same spot..........maybe if you have a look at why the horse dropped AP then you might not think it's so barbaric..........Dont hear you whining when gigginstown have half their horses bottomed by christmas.

Without sounding barbaric, thorough bred horses are bred to race.  They are of very little use otherwise.  Its a shame that they get killed, but we have seen horses die on the flat lately also.  High profile deaths like we seen today will bring the "green welly brigade" out in force.  Some animals are bred for pets, the wild or zoo's, not race horses!  Everyone knows the risks of running in the national, and if they reduce the field and fence sizes, it will loose its appeal.  It is awful to see animals suffer, but it is a fact of life in this game.  The activists will be out in force at future meetings all over the UK and Ireland soon, and the more chat about it being cruel will just harm racing and a lot of other pursuits.

Well said........We have enough people trying to stop our rural persuits and to have people going around using the words barbaric and russian roulette doesn't help.

I was Gant, did I not say the running of Uncle Tom Cobbley is disgraceful.

The fall was not the problem as i said horses fall the in fact hit was after the fall he got up ran away. His mind was completely gone, frazzled and not with it, he injured himself. Now how often does a horse actually kill himself on a racetrack that was not due to a fall at a fence and he never gets up or breaks a leg. Now throw in the fact that the horse was refusing to race today and you got a case of stone cold horse slaughter for the rspca, daily mail etc. All the news is talking about is the death of horses.

Well said........We have enough people trying to stop our rural persuits and to have people going around using the words barbaric and russian roulette doesn't help.

Horse Racing is a sport where horses die for our pleasure. Its what horses do they race etc they are animal. I have no case against Flat or Jumps racing. I do however have a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. Too often we turn a blind eye to what are sport is. I think we need to discuss how to make it safer. The easier way out is not to show dying horses after a fall, hide it from view as the tv companies do now to sell the product. That is not horse racing, trying to astetically cover over the bad parts by hiding it from view.

However Horse Racing is not a global sport watched by millions, the whip was a non issue for me but running horses that are not right to race is wrong. I have no problem with according to peat death as it was a death from a fall but synronised should have not raced today IMHO after his exploits before the race.

Go over to the daily mail and read the top rated comments. 1000s of people agreeing with one that is a "national disgrace". I dont read or take interest in the daily mail but when papers are going to publish all this stuff tommorrow and for horse racing to stick its head in the sand and say "oh well thats racing" is not good.

Greyhounds and Horse Industry in Ireland has disgraced ourselves lately with the death animals left in fields and dumps that one were race horses. I think that is shocking, time for proper measures to be taken on that issue as well.

The point is if horses are not right dump jockeys or get loose before the start is it right to force them to race???

I say no and for the pain in the arse it will be bookmaking and races it will benefit the sports image in the long run. BBC had to even talk about it as they went off air. Hardly a fitting tribute to the last GN on Terrestial tv in England. After last year many GN day folk will be wondering

Fool me once shame on you , Fool me twice shame on me

Also i just noticed its the rightwing papers The Sun and The Daily Mail charging this thing as they did last year. The Guardian full piece from Greg Wood i nearly entirely dedicated to the horses that died. Wood is one of the better journo and he has his finger on the pulse.

Sky News interview the Aintree director about how is this happening and the man luck completely flabbergasted at the questioning.

Big fallout over the week I would imagine and Paul Nicholls Comments after the race will not have helped.

You are entitled to your opinion.........Maybe I am wrong but the horse did not refuse to race.....he jinked at an over head rope.......the vet passed him after he bolted......he looked relaxed got a breather when trotted back to the others........Horse racing is a global sport watched by millions and an ideal way for the crustys to have a field day on the internet when things go wrong.

I don't think AP or any jockey would risk it over the national fences on a distressed horse.
AP is not the savage you reckon he is.........he is riding more winners since the whip rules.......the ultimate jockey.

The media boys gotta eat and tragedy and drama sells papers.....we are lucky in Ireland our media only care about politicians and gangland crime.

He didnt refuse but he ran loose for 7 mins. Something has never be done before running loose. Just I feel this situation is entirely avoidable that Horses that are running loose before races should not run.

My opinion may not result in any stat facts or anything but the image PR is not good. Its a pity a massive pity that the National will be changed again and be a complete diluted National to the years of old.

Media will be going over the top, they already are. Lets see what happens now during the next few weeks.

If Frankel is retired this will be the day after Friday the 13th!!!...FOCK SAKE

lads synchronised and mccoy parted company before the race due to a poxy tape that should not have been there... horse trotted around and was so relaxed that ther was nothin to remoteley see that he should have been withdrawn.. just a tragic set of circumstances imho..

You should read the mindboggling tosh on the horse racing forum ....some are actually telling us that Synchronised  had a premonition about the race -that he didn't want to race because he had a bad feeling something awful was going to happen him.
The way some English carry on over animals really shakes your faith in human rationality.

We'll drown in political correctness if we're not careful, it won't be long before the drink you have in the pub will be "EVIL"

And these people think they'll live forever, I'm not sure the average age of dieing is but I'm sure you're one of them!, sometime!

FFS Live!!!

Horse that never moved or looked like a Gold Cup winner and that is why he was there. It's what plain jane gets unfortunately, noones fault, his options were probably limited given the crop coming up, nobody's fault, but he didn't deserve that in a million years. Looked to have the nicest temperament as well, G'night fella. Glad Neptune won it all the same, belated boost to 08' Gold Cup form and the golden age of staying chasing!!!

Rubyisgodinthesaddle.........Your comments are over the top and the bit you said about AP McCoy is absolute crap and way off the mark.
If that is your opinion of how NH racing operates you are probably better off watching M O'Learys planes than his horses.........only my opinion.

Finians Rainbow spooked badly on Friday and crashed through the rail. Geraghty somehow managed to stay on and the horse won easily. IMO it's far more traumatic for a horse to crash through the rail than to run riderless freely around a racecourse for a few minutes. However Finians Rainbow showed that stuff like this actually has little or no effect on a horse.

All the connections in the run up to the race were saying the same thing; "as long as they come back safe and sound".  What hypocrisy!  If that was the over riding goal, don't enter them in this race.

Yesterday changed my perspective.  I can't sit back and enjoy an event in which horses die with such regularity.

I can't believe that there won't be big changes ahead of next year.

correct db.

bogtrotters the lot of ye^ rural pursuits like this eh?         
                                                                                                                   The Irish Greyhound Board has confirmed it has identified the owners of a number of greyhounds, whose decomposing carcasses were found dumped in a disused quarry at Ballyagran, west Limerick, over the Easter weekend. It is believed the dogs were shot in the head and then discarded in contravention of the recently introduced Greyhound Welfare Bill.

Bord na gCon said it was “working with gardaí to bring the offenders to justice” and “condemned” such actions. It added that identification markings on some of the dogs “were still intact” and “the owners of same has already been identified and will now be questioned”.

I'm proud to be a bog trotter.  Btw, you cannot label all country people the same as these knackers that did that in Limerick.  I run the outdoor pursuits(fishing and shooting) in a country lodge in Connemara, and I have had dealings in the past with anti bloodsport tóssers.  They were dealt with sharply.  If not they would have returned with more plebs.  Personally, I don't go on the shoots anymore, as I don't like to see the birds being shot(I shot far too many in my youth).  I will kill and eat a trout or salmon.  I eat wild fowl that has been shot and I don't have a problem with people who shoot them.  In my area there is a plague of Mink, that were released from a farm in Co. Mayo by animal activists.  Mink, along with humans and foxes kill for pleasure.  I have seen mink killing dozens of baby trout for fun, and letting them float off downstream.  They kill baby otters, chickens, ducks, eels, lambs etc...  In this day and age people are over reacting to certain sports and labelling them cruel.  I never display dead birds etc.. as it is only the fuel that is needed for retaliation, also I am very aware that some people may be offended.

People are blaming McCoy for the death of Syncronised yesterday - they are clueless.  He is a proper horseman, and that horse gave him one of his most memorable wins.

People are knocking Paul Nichols for saying in his interview afterwards "people need to get on with it"  He is 100% right.  This was his moment of triumph, not only winning the biggest race on the planet, but securing the trainers championship.

I get the feeling the English seem to be more concerned in the welfare of the horses than the jockeys. Noel Fehily got his ankle broken, hardly mentioned. Horses are not as important as humans.

Any of you boys ever indulge in a bit of horse meat now and again???  Tasty stuff!

My god some of the views on this thread are utterly bizarre

Recently i have been to the UK a few times on business & pleasure and each time i've tried to take in a race meeting and the one thing that truck me was how much closer the British racing public are to their horses than us Irish. I witnessed silence at Sandown until the horse got up and then spontaneous applause when the horse got back up on it's feet by the entire crowd even the people in the other boxes. That's the difference.

It's true that they are a very kind and sensitive people.

The same happens over here Rocketfingers, i remember being at Leopardstown and Le Coudrey (i think it was) took an awful fall at the last and was down for a long time, they put the screens up and all and when he finally rose to his feet he got a big cheer and was applauded on his way past the stands.

Rocketfingers having another dig at rural Ireland.

Well if a person from Sligo is it should not involve you as you're from the pale gant, you're traditions and values are different from us Irish leave our people to speak about their own.

Have emailed Betfair to see if they will create a 'Pale Sports Forum'.

I don't find the pale thing very amusing anymore.......Your teacher in the uk was not up to speed on her Irish history........you keep telling us how the uk racegoer and their facilities are far superior.....I don't agree with you.

oh dear the culchie boggers having a good old whinge

itcanbedone.......or just a simple email to rocketfingers telling him where the pale was..........Rocketfingers and his boys get a nose bleed a few hundred yards from the square in Tallaght.

PF......A bit like the auld jessies on the terrace at spk giving out about the igb and milldean panther going to cork.......

Yeah that's it, i think we're just a nation of moaners at times

Gant Sligo is not in the UK, We are more Irish than you, as i said you probably do not know the history of my country like the Irish people do. Btw teacher? Did you mean professor or lecturer?

Come on rocketfingers did the wildman not explain the pale, the royal county and the high kings at tara to you the other day..........your boys left soccer here so behave.

Gant you were part of a privileged political group, my people, the Irish who rebelled against yours and drove you and most of your kind back to the east where you became large farmers, large breeders of Horses or greyhounds on their massive estates. You tried to rule the country from your pale after our the clans spoke with more than words but you found a way back into the political elite by joining the FF party. Now fast forward to the modern day when the real Irish stood up against you and your Fianna fail nobles and defeated you. You are welcome to live among us but only as equals, the re-zoning of your own land and the quasi aristocratic days are over my brown envelope under the table loving friend. Is féidir linn it means in my language " Yes we can" one day rule Ireland again.

what party do you support rocket?

How did a thread about Synchronised losing his life on the racetrack yesterday turn to this?:

Rocketfingers 15 Apr 12 16:54 
Gant you were part of a privileged political group, my people, the Irish who rebelled against yours and drove you and most of your kind back to the east where you became large farmers, large breeders of Horses or greyhounds on their massive estates. You tried to rule the country from your pale after our the clans spoke with more than words but you found a way back into the political elite by joining the FF party. Now fast forward to the modern day when the real Irish stood up against you and your Fianna fail nobles and defeated you. You are welcome to live among us but only as equals, the re-zoning of your own land and the quasi aristocratic days are over my brown envelope under the table loving friend. Is féidir linn it means in my language " Yes we can" one day rule Ireland again.

Neverliked McCoy since his days with Pipe when they would literally run the guts out of the horses and beat them senseless with the whip to get them over the winning line. McCoy seems to be a cold calculated Machine shows no emotion whatsoever. Still a fantastic jockey and one of the best ever but I like my mount to be given a Paul Carberry, Paul Townend and Ruby type of ride.

Another is Paul Nicholls, never liked him as his public persona is all pleasant and nice but behind the surface he is a right so and so. Sam Thomas got a right kicking when he was down by Nicholls. Never like to see that.

The vast majority of race hoses (not to be confused with Tony few mares down the road) will end up as meat on the plates of some Japenese Family, be used as Dog Food or may have a worse fate. That is just fact.

John Hales is the story of the race. A Man who loves his horses who buy them on spec and eye and keeps them and retire to his country side farm when they are finished racing and looked after till they die. He is a real horseman and real owner.

Surely the main problem with the National is the amount of runners, too many and will be reduced to around 30 I would imagine for next year. Horses that get loose before hand should not run. Avoid another PR disaster and more than likely will save the punter money as well due there mounts losing the race before they run. Alas they are exceptions to the rule.

Also clearly McCoy did not kill the horse that would be daft. I am questioning the logic of running the horse that did not fancy it. Jonjo said as long as he came home safe he would be happy. Now considering what happened before the race and considering the owner and trainer were briefed before the race started about did they want to run was this thrown out the window when it really came to the crunch.

Me thinks it did. No other explaniation for Connections to run if they got lost in the moment.

Why would they not run? The horse was checked over by the vet and he was fine. So many people are carrying on ridicolous over what happened, it was sad but things like this happen in life and you carry on.

This whole 'horse running loose before the race, should not start' is a complete irrelevancy.

Racehorses are thorough breds yes and they have a job to do but they do not deserve to be treated like literal pieces of meat for fun. I love horse racing for the spectacle of an animal showing amazing skill and stamina, not for betting purposes. They are one of the most beautiful animals you are ever likely to see.

I disagree with Newmanix completely, his post is absolute tosh actually, what foxes and minks do is part of nature and nothing more and i accept that.

Horse racing is a sport run by an elite few (trainers, owners) etc. who are generally c£$nts who sneer at the lay man on the street who generally pays for their pleasure.

Sync should never have been allowed run and as stated here if a horse bolts before a race it should be taken out, no accpetions.

I disagree with Newmanix completely, his post is absolute tosh actually, what foxes and minks do is part of nature and nothing more and i accept that.

Timeforchange.  Mink are not indigenous to Ireland's countryside.  Especially tens of thousands of them.  If you spend time in the outdoors like I do, you would realise.

have a look at this, and you might learn somethinghttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0121/1224310553100...

Rocketfingers






15 Apr 12 16:54
Joined:


20 May 10
| Topic/replies: 3,250 | Blogger: Rocketfingers's blog



Gant you were part of a privileged political group, my people, the Irish who rebelled against yours and drove you and most of your kind back to the east where you became large farmers, large breeders of Horses or greyhounds on their massive estates. You tried to rule the country from your pale after our the clans spoke with more than words but you found a way back into the political elite by joining the FF party. Now fast forward to the modern day when the real Irish stood up against you and your Fianna fail nobles and defeated you. You are welcome to live among us but only as equals, the re-zoning of your own land and the quasi aristocratic days are over my brown envelope under the table loving friend. Is féidir linn it means in my language " Yes we can" one day rule Ireland again.


Will Richard Boyd Barrett and the boys lead you to the promised land......They know how to fill in an expense sheet and empty the statioary cupboards and out the other side of their mouths talk about austerity.

They have a long way to catch up to Bertie and the rest of you FF buddies ! Your kind got way too greedy and ruined the country.

This great country will come good again and your boys will still be protesting about something while their snouts are in the trough.

In fairness to Bertie, I think he has been made a scape goat for the whole corrupt political system in his country. Was he a bit of a chancer?? Yes but I dont believe he did it in order to subsidise his high life.

Lets not compare Bertie to Haughey. Haughey should be always been known as the Disgraced Taoiseach not Bertie.

He was a chancer of the highest order........no bank account and unable to remember large currency transactions, large winnings on the horses.........one as bad as the other.

And he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!

Rocketfingers post of 2.11 is a classic and sums him up.
He starts off with a lie by saying recently he has been to the UK on business and pleasure,he then invents trips to the races but his best line is when explaining about the spontaneous applause he says even people in the other boxes,was the imaginery blonde applauding.

It is a pretty all-encompassing thread alright in fairness. Something for everyone.

Brenda Power has a weekly column in The Irish Daily Mail.
In her column headlined " This stupid National disgrace" I wish she would get her facts right before commenting on it.

Mistake 1) Synchronised was reportedly 'spooked' when he saw the height of the jumps on the course that would kill him.

Mistake 2) Sychronised was put down at Becher's Brook on Saturday. 

Most of these people commenting on this haven't a clue about racing and shouldn't be let loose on this subject in their paper.

Is she the wan that Bertie's accountant managed to have on the rack on the Frontline, God help us, she probably saw the GN as an easy score and she even managed to mess that up. Did she leave the Sunday Times?