2008 Departures

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I too would like to add my plaudits to the others for Flying Instructor.
Such a witty sight,, him running in his WWI goggles, given his name!
- a wonderful horse and agreed he had a great life if all too short

Very sorry indeed to hear about Ebony Light, I followed him early and hoped he would go on to better things for the McCains, clearly too fragile RIP
 
Remember him winning the Peter Marsh from something like a stone and a half out of the handicap - he jumped for fun and never looked like getting beat that day.
 
I have been informed that Sheena West as lost Qualify, ex Mick Channon 5 year old, on the gallops,suspected heart attack. :(
 
That is upsetting, I broke him in many years ago and he was a lovely horse to ride as a young horse, but was a bleeder and never fulfilled his potential.
 
by Tony O'Hehir
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DOTHE TRICK, who started favourite for the Pierse Hurdle six days ago, has had to be put down as a result of injuries he sustained when he fell three out in the big Leopardstown handicap.

Trainer Michael Halford said on Friday: "Do The Trick was taken to the veterinary hospital in University College Dublin immediately after his fall and, unfortunately, when the vets were able to operate on his injured hock yesterday, they found it was so badly damaged that they would be unable to save him.

"It is a terrible shame as he was a good horse. He did well for us on the Flat last year and was running a good race when he fell in the Pierse."
Do The Trick was bred in Australia where he won three races, at Benalla and Werribee in Victoria and at Victoria Park in South Australia, before Halford bought him on behalf of owner Paul Rooney. He won a maiden hurdle at Sligo in August 2006 and went on to win three times on the Flat for Halford last year.

The seven-year-old won the Lady Riders Derby atthe Curragh in July, ridden by Halford's partner Louise Boswell, before following up in handicaps at the Galway festival and at Leopardstown.

Toownabrack, winner of his only start, in a bumper for Noel Meade, died on Monday, according to owner Kieran Towey.

Towey said: “He was very promising but unfortunately he collapsed and died on the gallops last Monday.'
 
Patricksnineteenth did a tendon yesterday (third time) and will now be retired to replace Flying Instructor as the trainer's hack.
 
Glad to say that this is not a sad departure from racing but Rocky's Girl injured her tendon badly after coming second in her final race at Bangor a few weeks back.

She was owned by a local syndicate and she's now at home with me and 3 other ex racers where she will enjoy a long and happy retirement :clap: . We picked her up from Alison Thorpe's yard last week and although on box rest, she's doing fine.

At this rate I'll never be able to retire - I'm glad my stables are now full to capacity :laughing:.

Deb
 
Thanks DO for this news, Patricks has been a good servant and great to know he will have a retirement where he is happiest. Just a shame he had so much trouble, was a very decent horse.


Also great to hear about Ricky's Girl, best of luck with all the retired ones!
 
How lovely to hear about the Ex Racehorses being retired :clap: ...I would love to be able one day to give one a home .... :)
 
The breeding industry has a lot to answer for in terms of over production. How many "unwanted" racehorses end up with miserable lives. Also the purchase of horses should be more strongly controlled.

I am generalising here, but as I understand it when racing was genuinely a "rich man's" game, the sport was about fun and honour, and the horses were terated better - ie. less as a commodity.

Nowadays with horses changing hands for realtively small sums, many people can get into horse ownership who have a) no regard for animal welfare and b) only want ot make a quick buck. If the poor horse proves not up to winning they jettison him into god knows what sort of life.

I know the sport would seriously contract but governing bodies ought to act to restrict production by breeders, and restrict ownership only to an elite who can guarantee good retirements for the horses.

Similarly when horses are injured how many who could be saved are destroyed because the owner cannot afford or will not pay the vets costs. Such people should also be removed from racing.

Yes, I am being idealistic and there is little chance of this happening, but you never know. If enough of us lobby!
 
Restricting ownership to an elite of rich owners would go a long way to killing the sport.
 
Ignorant owners have always been around. it's the poor trainers who are willing to take on and continue with horses who should not be racing, and to cut corners at the expense of horse welfare, who are the big problem. Overbreeding will take care of itself as prize money falls, training and transport fees increase, and the bottom drops out of the market for poor horses.

Agreed tho, less racing would be a big help. Owners and trainers soon retire horses which they can't get into a race. Meanwhile there have been huge strides made in the last five years in making sure ex-racehorses are properly retired, headed up by the umbella organisation Retraining Of Racehorses, funded mainly by the industry and by individual benefactors such as Sheik Maktoum:

http://www.ror.org.uk
 
There's a lot of merit in your theory useful but I'm not quite so sure about restricting ownership - for starters it would be impossible to police, and vet. I can see where you are coming from however.

As for restricting breeding, I'm entirely with you there. It's a subject which crops up every now and again on here and I'm firmly in the camp of thought that there is far too much dross being bred from dross which in turn has saturated the market with bad horses. That's all well and good but not only does it lower the overall standards of racing (thus offering up the temptation to start pulling horses and all sorts - who wants to pay up to £20k a year for a horse that might win them £1200 in a 0-45 banded race, if it wins?!) it also leads to a glut of unwanted ex-racehorses that a lot of layman riders are unwilling/incapable of taking on so they end up God knows where.
 
Gareth Flynn, I dont understand why you say this?

This is what the sport was like in the old days when you had the famous owner breeders.

It may see a massive contraction of the sport but why is that a bad thing?

As long as the horses' welfare came first isn't that the important thing?

I am in two minds over the banded race situation. If overbreeding must continue, then surely a category of races for horses lowly rated at least means these horses stay in training as opposed to ending up emaciated and pulling catrs in Mumbai?

However I take the point the banded races can lead to corruption - but there again if the owbers were not money motivated......
 
You make valid points regarding overbreeding (though the market itself is likely to correct this problem in the next couple of years) and too much racing (the scourge that was banded racing being a prime example) Useful, but I think a return to the time when owning a horse was the domain of the rich, royal or famous would be a huge step in the wrong direction for horse racing. I am confident a vast majority of racing enthusiasts are in agreement with me on this issue.

Welcome to the forum by the way, Useful. :)
 
I don't understand the correlation between horse welfare and rich owner-breeders. The sport, particularly on the flat, is still dominated by owner-breeders.

Since when did having loads of money increase a person's chances of having a conscience?
 
Dont know if it was said before, but Norton Sapphire has been retired. Unlucky to unseat last time out, done a tendon. Retired for breeding so i understand, and best of luck to them with her, she was a gutsy thing.
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@Jan 21 2008, 05:51 PM
- who wants to pay up to £20k a year for a horse that might win them £1200 in a 0-45 banded race, if it wins?!)
Click to expand...
Me :(

I love having my 0-45 horse and when he finishes his racing he will have a home for life with my mares and pointers and will be treated as if he's won a classic.

I love going racing and even if the horse is limited its a good buzz. I had a bigger buzz from Star today than when I was riding or looking after group horses.

When a small horse achieves it feels more exciting.

Obviously he wont be kept for 0-45 races all year, but whilst he can get in the money he'll keep running, I'm sure many other owners like me are in the same frame of mind.
 
Well said Chris, I had huge fun out of mine which were all very moderate, but they didn't know they weren't running in valuable races. I wish I could still afford even a plater, I miss 'being an owner' extremely.

There's far too much snobbery around about horses. I find that an odd statement coming from SL who had shares in Kahlua Bear who wasn't any better than Star, and who ran in SL's name! After all SL you were a bit potty about the horse as I remember - quite right too :P
 
Teddy never ran in SL's name, he ran for the Takeover Teddy Team (which was the two of us).
 
Very - commiserations again to Arkers and SL. None of my horses ever won, 2nd was the best we got - but I've never had to suffer the horror of losing a horse.

I agreeing with Chris that almost all horses are precious to their owners, regardless of their talent
 
Useful, both of your posts on this subject are puzzling.

How do you propose to work out who is fit to be a racehorse owner before they become a racehorse owner?

Where is your evidence that everything was better back in the day ?

Were there no cheap horses in those days ?

Were there no homebred horses out of scabby mares by the local knacker mans stallion that went on to win races?

You make out that nowadays a great deal of cast-aside racehorses just end up being mistreated and pulling carts in a foreign land. By the way, pulling a cart isn't necessarily poor treatment, its a job for a horse and not a crime. You dont mention the vast amount of failed or ex-racehorses that are gifted or sold cheaply to keen riders to hunt or play at dressage or jumping or even just cuddle til they are old and woolly.

Of course nobody wants to see horses being mistreated, but you talk about horses being jettisoned into god-knows what sort of life and accuse many prospective purchasers of horses of having no regard for horse welfare, and that these prospective purchasers should be controlled... well by who?! Who are you or who is anyone else to judge someone who is buying a cheap horse? What should be the criteria that these horrendous people are asked to meet?

Why do people seem to think that selling a horse after its racing career is over is some sort of disgusting crime ? What are owners supposed to do with all these horses they are not allowed to move on after their racing careers are over for fear of being labelled inhumane?

Even horses that are entered for horses-in-training sales elicit groans of woe from some sources..." after all that horse has done for so-and-so and now he's GETTING RID".. what, so he's not allowed to sell him to someone else now, just in case by some 1000000/1 chance he ends up in tibet carrying supplies to Everest base camp.

Supply and demand sorts itself out.

Your concern is not misplaced, just way over the top and a little more trust in those whose hands these horses exist would not go amiss.
Any horse-welfare crimes that are being committed due to over-production will be found and punished by those who care, so tell us where they are or alert the authorities, but don't try and tell us that racing would be better if it was just Lord Derby (idiot) and against Lord Carnavon (idiot).
 
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