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A very sad outcome to the race especially as the trolls are having a field day on social media. The yard who are deeply upset are getting hammered as is the jockey.

My own feelings bring up the age issue which goes back to my conversation with James Given (former trainer and now head of BHA vetting) after a 17 year old horse collapsed and died at a point to point during the pandemic. I had tried everything I could to get it stopped from running as it hadn't run in two years and I could foresee something like that happening but sadly there were no rules in place to do so. After the horse collapsed after one circuit, the owner/trainer was seen sobbing over the horse...I really wanted to ask why on earth he thought it the right thing to do by racing the horse. But I didn't and instead contacted the BHA and James Given. We had a long and detailed conversation and he admitted that as a vet, he sees deterioration in horses at the "magic" age of 13. But he said he had come up against so many trainers who rubbished his views and kept trotting out "Ah but Sonny Somers won two races aged 18!" I could feel his frustration. He would like to have a cut off age for racing set at 13. But thought it would take a long time to get to that ruling.

We have as a result of that managed to get a ruling for all horses entered in point to point races over the age of 15, MUST have a current veterinary certificate of health logged. So they must get checked out to rule out any things like heart murmurs. I'd like to get the age limit lowered to 13 personally. There will always be those who are exceptions to the rule - Southfield Theatre is still racing enthusiastically at the age of 17 but he's a rarity.

<blockquote data-quote="jinnyj" data-source="post: 2698237" data-attributes="member: 65066">A very sad outcome to the race especially as the trolls are having a field day on social media. The yard who are deeply upset are getting hammered as is the jockey.My own feelings bring up the age issue which goes back to my conversation with James Given (former trainer and now head of BHA vetting) after a 17 year old horse collapsed and died at a point to point during the pandemic. I had tried everything I could to get it stopped from running as it hadn&#039;t run in two years and I could foresee something like that happening but sadly there were no rules in place to do so. After the horse collapsed after one circuit, the owner/trainer was seen sobbing over the horse...I really wanted to ask why on earth he thought it the right thing to do by racing the horse. But I didn&#039;t and instead contacted the BHA and James Given.&nbsp; We had a long and detailed conversation and he admitted that as a vet, he sees deterioration in horses at the &quot;magic&quot; age of 13. But he said he had come up against so many trainers who rubbished his views and kept trotting out &quot;Ah but Sonny Somers won two races aged 18!&quot; I could feel his frustration. He would like to have a cut off age for racing set at 13. But thought it would take a long time to get to that ruling. We have as a result of that managed to get a ruling for all horses entered in point to point races over the age of 15, MUST have a current veterinary certificate of health logged. So they must get checked out to rule out any things like heart murmurs. I&#039;d like to get the age limit&nbsp; lowered to 13 personally. There will always be those who are exceptions to the rule - Southfield Theatre is still racing enthusiastically at the age of 17 but he&#039;s a rarity.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="jinnyj, post: 2698237, member: 65066"] A very sad outcome to the race especially as the trolls are having a field day on social media. The yard who are deeply upset are getting hammered as is the jockey. My own feelings bring up the age issue which goes back to my conversation with James Given (former trainer and now head of BHA vetting) after a 17 year old horse collapsed and died at a point to point during the pandemic. I had tried everything I could to get it stopped from running as it hadn't run in two years and I could foresee something like that happening but sadly there were no rules in place to do so. After the horse collapsed after one circuit, the owner/trainer was seen sobbing over the horse...I really wanted to ask why on earth he thought it the right thing to do by racing the horse. But I didn't and instead contacted the BHA and James Given. We had a long and detailed conversation and he admitted that as a vet, he sees deterioration in horses at the "magic" age of 13. But he said he had come up against so many trainers who rubbished his views and kept trotting out "Ah but Sonny Somers won two races aged 18!" I could feel his frustration. He would like to have a cut off age for racing set at 13. But thought it would take a long time to get to that ruling. We have as a result of that managed to get a ruling for all horses entered in point to point races over the age of 15, MUST have a current veterinary certificate of health logged. So they must get checked out to rule out any things like heart murmurs. I'd like to get the age limit lowered to 13 personally. There will always be those who are exceptions to the rule - Southfield Theatre is still racing enthusiastically at the age of 17 but he's a rarity. [/QUOTE]

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