How do we deal with a day like today?

M

MoscowFlyerisMagnificent

At the Start
Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
93
This thread is about the loss of Many Clouds. As I mentioned on the Gold Cup thread, I feel the need to reflect at times like this. A magnificent horse, who went down fighting. He gave it his all.

I tend to ruminate. I don't move on quickly from sad events like this. My question here is, how do other forumites deal with moments like this? Moments that put the brutal nature of the sport we love to the forefront?

Do you move on quickly? Put it in perspective (think of someone like JT perhaps)?

Maybe more importantly, do you think there is any more that can be done to prevent this?
 
We move on. It's the only thing we can do. It's just a matter of how quickly one can come to terms with it - and some don't.

That's not meant to sound harsh; pragmatism isn't the same thing as not caring.
 
The way I do it is confusing to a lot of people, I'm an equine nurse and when I haven't done this I've worked in racing. I'm also a very small time breeder. A lot of clients at work ask me how I can be so involved - I reconcile it to myself like this.

We breed these beautiful animals for a purpose. We train them and cosset them and we ask them to do a job for us. That's everyone - not just the trainers and staff, anyone who watches or puts money on is just as liable for horses being raced. They get the best care and preparation and in return we ask them to go out and run races. Sometimes, just sometimes, they don't come home - but even when they are injured they get the best of care at top speed and any suffering is kept to a minimum. It's incredibly sad - but it's a fact of life. Horses are fragile but racehorses are much much luckier than most.
and like Grassy says, you go on. Life can't stop because we lose a friend - and that's what national horses become, they are our friends.
RIP Clouds, lots of people will miss you a lot.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
This may get me banned from the Forum.

I am momentarily sad and then remember that somewhere like Aleppo exists in this world and think no more of it. I tend to save 99% of my emotional capital for humans.
 
an capall said:
This may get me banned from the Forum.

I am momentarily sad and then remember that somewhere like Aleppo exists in this world and think no more of it. I tend to save 99% of my emotional capital for humans.
Click to expand...

Sure, I tend to end up putting things in perspective too... Although thinking about Aleppo would probably leave me feeling worse, not better... If I could save-up my emotional capital as you suggest and only use it in certain situations then my life would be very different :)
 
Agree with everything that trudij has said. It's the only way I've been able to follow the sport though from childhood, when I didn't realise that horses could get injured, until my baptism of fire many years later when a horse called Condor Pan was pts in front of me in what was one of my first visits to a racecourse. But I'll never forget the horses that have lost their life because of the sport that I love so much. The least I can do is cherish their memory. I don't feel guilty about things like Aleppo because such things wouldn't happen if I had my way, but horses do race because people like me enjoy watching them run.
 
trudij said:
The way I do it is confusing to a lot of people, I'm an equine nurse and when I haven't done this I've worked in racing. I'm also a very small time breeder. A lot of clients at work ask me how I can be so involved - I reconcile it to myself like this.

We breed these beautiful animals for a purpose. We train them and cosset them and we ask them to do a job for us. That's everyone - not just the trainers and staff, anyone who watches or puts money on is just as liable for horses being raced. They get the best care and preparation and in return we ask them to go out and run races. Sometimes, just sometimes, they don't come home - but even when they are injured they get the best of care at top speed and any suffering is kept to a minimum. It's incredibly sad - but it's a fact of life. Horses are fragile but racehorses are much much luckier than most.
and like Grassy says, you go on. Life can't stop because we lose a friend - and that's what national horses become, they are our friends.
RIP Clouds, lots of people will miss you a lot.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Thanks for this Trudij. An excellent post
 
I do volunteer work with retired racehorses and other unwanted types.

i am often asked by people how do I justify a love of animal with a sport like racing.

My usual response is what does a horse do when it's in a field, it's runs and bucks. What does a horse do when it's jockey falls off, it continues to run and chase the pack.

Racing is far from perfect but better being looked after, trained to get the max of its ability than to be doing nowt.

They were bred to race, without it they don't exist.
 
Last edited:
an capall said:
This may get me banned from the Forum.

I am momentarily sad and then remember that somewhere like Aleppo exists in this world and think no more of it. I tend to save 99% of my emotional capital for humans.
Click to expand...

very honest posting. Someone will always have it worse and as a race we move forward or we regress
 
We all hate to see horses we know via watching racing die. It hits us hard some for minutes, hours or days but the owners the trainers and their regular jockeys etc never forget.

I often think of Jonjo in tears on the ground cradling Alverton's head when he was killed and you realize how tough it is being on that side of the fence. You can be sure that old horse crossed his mind today and a few others.

We can celebrate Many Clouds life as we should but for others like Ollie Sherwood,Leighton Aspell and his lad/work rider it will leave a huge hole in their lives.
 
I'm get sad whenever any horse pays the ultimate price. If it happens in my presence at a track I'm visiting, I will leave the track ninety percent of the time. Even if it happens in the first race. If it's a race where I'm emotionally involved or even if I just feel off that day, I'll more often than not just switch off the telly or laptop and do something else with my day. But it's never out of guilt. Always sadness borne from the love of the horse.

As mentioned above, racehorses are given a life of luxury, most have no qualms about the act of running or jumping and are given the best possible treatment when the occasional but inevitable happens.

What does push me into utilizing the necessary art of cognitive dissonance when it comes to justifying my support of the sport are the overproduction of racehorses and the fact that countless of these most honest, placid and noble servants are left without a reason to be once they've finished their careers. Indeed, it makes me apoplectic with rage that anybody who has the means to invest in an animal for the sake of jollies or showing off, doesn't have the provisions or desire to see that the animal gets the retirement it deserves. As a vegetarian, I feel vastly more guilty about not being a vegan than I do for following horse racing. Indeed, I often feel like anybody critical of horse racing on the whole yet isn't at the very least a vegan deserves ridicule. Still, I'd be a lot happier if I saw vast improvements in the aforementioned two matters.

In short, I feel sad and I grieve for whatever horse is killed on a track on any given day and that process takes however long it takes (though not as long as those who personally loved the horse). But I don't, and nor should I, feel one iota of guilt.
 
Last edited:
It remains to be seen if Oliver Sherwood cops any backlash for his somewhat clumsy eulogy

"I always said he'd die for you, and he has today, doing what he loved most,"
 
Just got in, was there today. Atmosphere was terrible in the aftermath, the only other time I've experienced it that bad was when at Exeter on the day Best Mate died.Why is that, why should a better class horse who has won higher class races make you feel worse than when a selling plater dies at a gaff track ? I can't even answer my own question.

Thankfully I didn't witness it as was on the way through the old stand to reach the winners enclosure and welcome him in........and then he didn't come in.

Might be able to offer a more coherent response tomorrow having slept on it but in the meantime here's a picture I took when he was led around the parade ring at Cheltenham's April meeting a couple of weeks after he won the GN.


Many%20Clouds_zpsbbr6hjde.jpg
 
Diamond Geezer said:
Why is that, why should a better class horse who has won higher class races make you feel worse than when a selling plater dies at a gaff track ?
Click to expand...

Because the better class horse is on your mind alot more frequently than a selling plater. Plus they show the love of sport themselves by winning so many times and sometimes they do it in your favour and you love them, while other times they do it against you but you still respect them for that.

In any other sport when accidents happens some sort of investigation takes place but with horse racing the risk of fatality is accepted by all closely involved with them, otherwise they'd keep them home as ponies. You either accept it or don't. Horses will die back at home too, remember Kauto? Vautour? and how many others that aren't so well known? It also happened today outside of the race, it happened because the trainer thought this post-race process was normal for Many Clouds, but apparently the underlying cause was much more serious than he believed.
 
Warbler said:
It remains to be seen if Oliver Sherwood cops any backlash for his somewhat clumsy eulogy

"I always said he'd die for you, and he has today, doing what he loved most,"
Click to expand...

I only heard "run through a brick wall" on the bit I saw, hopefully the anti racing mob won't make too much of whatever was said ( though we all know they probably will )

I've just watched a segment from itv where they interviewed Oliver Sherwood - thought they handled it really really well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I thought it was handled with dignity and responsibly by the ITV crew- yes, Ruby said before the break that he didnt think it was serious but he was still with the team when they came back and was very humble about his comment saying that he didnt want to believe the worst and his thoughts were with the OC staff. you could also see how devestated Leglock Luke was and trying to hold back the tears.

But the most gracious comments came from Oliver Sherwood himself, speaking with quiet grace and wanting only to remember the horse at his most gallant and brave and thats how we should all remember him. Yes MC was fragile in a way that not many horses are but despite all this he did literally give everything when he stepped out onto the tracks and for that we should be grateful. He stands there with the likes of Persian Punch, Red Cadeaux and Thomas Chippendale just to mention a few.
 
guys I think you need a chill pill.

if you want sad, then condolences must first go to humans and animals second.

sadly I must report a young amateur jockey has been killed tonight in an accident in cork. rip.
 
trudij said:
I only heard "run through a brick wall" on the bit I saw, hopefully the anti racing mob won't make too much of whatever was said ( though we all know they probably will )
Click to expand...

If he has said brick wall, then someone needs to get onto the BBC (press officer for the BHA at the very least) because "I always said he'd die for you" (as they're reporting) sounds like a seriously poor choice of phrase

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/38782368
 
I'm not sure if I can link from Facebook - but on the link I saw from the itv racing interview he definitely said brick wall. Of course that's not to say he didn't say he'd die for you in a different interview - it's an expression that's used a lot for brave people/animals as we all know.
So very sad. ITV appeared to do a really good job with it, it can't have been an easy thing to do at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I was there too and when he went down it looked to be very quick as he was still even before they could put the screens up . I didn't see him go down but there was a cry of anguish from the crowd Leighton Aspell who had jumped off ran over to him and he was very quickly still . I think of that as a blessing though I shan't forget it . It felt so unfair .
 
Last edited:
Exactly - for anything special to you if you could choose how they go you'd want it to be quick and as painless as possible, he was hearing all the cheers - seems like a reasonable way to go to me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top