Animal Aid

Numbers

• Approximately 18,000 foals are born into the closely-related British and Irish racing industries each year, yet only around 40% go on to race. Those horses who do not make the grade may be slaughtered for meat or repeatedly change hands in a downward spiral of neglect.
• Around 6,000 horses leave British racing every year – the same number who enter it. Only a comparatively small proportion of the animals go on to become breeders or enjoy a decent, properly financed retirement.

Injuries & Deaths

• An Animal Aid study of available evidence shows that around 420 horses are raced to death every year. The details can be viewed at http://www.horsedeathwatch.com/.
• Some 38% of these fatalities occur during, or immediately after, a race, and result from: a broken leg, back, neck or pelvis; fatal spinal injuries; heart attack; or burst blood vessels. The other victims perish from training injuries or are killed after being assessed by their owners as no-hopers.
• Serious racing-related illnesses are now endemic. 82% of flat race horses older than three years of age suffer from bleeding lungs (exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage). Gastric ulcers are present in no fewer than 93% of horses in training, in whom the condition gets progressively worse. When horses are retired, the condition improves.

Breeding

• During a six month breeding season stallions can be required to cover three mares a day. Whereas 30 years ago, covering 100 mares in a year was almost unheard of, it is now routine for leading stallions to have 200 broodmares on their books.
• Outside of the breeding shed, stallions are kept well separated from mares and other males. When not housed in their stable, they are confined behind high fences. And to minimise any chance of a costly injury, insurance policies usually state that they must not be ridden. It is a life of near isolation and deadening routine that – barring physical breakdown – can go on for 20 or more years.
• Breeding females are subjected to drugs and prolonged periods of artificial light to control and speed up reproduction.
• Left to their own devices, mares in the wild have one foal every two years, or perhaps twice every three years. They deliver in the spring, after a pregnancy lasting 11 months. The racing industry forces healthy and fertile mares to produce a foal every year – as soon after January 1 as possible. The commercial advantage of being born close to January 1 arises from the fact that they would be one year old and likely to fetch a better price at the crucial yearling sales than a horse that is, say, 9 months old.
• In 1957, precisely 7,826 mares were retained for breeding purposes in Britain and Ireland. Together, they produced 4,254 live foals. By 2007, the figures had quadrupled – more than 30,000 mares had produced 18,472 foals.

National Hunt (Jump) racing

• The majority of fatalities occur in jump racing. Horses used to be selectively bred for this sector. They were heavier-boned and more robust than the faster animals racing on the flat. Because of the increasing emphasis on speed in all racing sectors, horses entered into jump races are now more often ‘cast-offs’ from the flat. Deaths, as a consequence, are more common.
• The five most hazardous of all the country’s courses are Sedgefield, Cheltenham, Plumpton, Stratford and Wincanton.
• Grand National: Since 1997, 36 horses have died at the three-day annual meeting. The Grand National's fences are of variable height, with the most imposing being The Chair. It is some 5 ft 2in. high and has a huge ditch and spread. The Becher's Brook fence is an infamous killer. Graphic Approach was its latest victim - in April 2007.
• Cheltenham: This is the most hazardous of all Britain's 59 courses. In 2006, 11 horses died at the Cheltenham Festival, while nine died in the previous three festivals. Two more died in 2007 and another in 2008. Cheltenham's downhill fences are notorious and over many decades have killed seasoned and novice horses alike. Even if they clear the fence rather than running into it, gravity can tend to bring them headfirst to the ground upon landing. In the 12 months following the 2007 Festival, there were eight equine deaths at Cheltenham.

Flat racing

• Whereas bone fractures in animals racing on the flat were once comparatively rare, the attrition rate is now approaching that of jump racers. Amongst a typical group of 100 flat-racing horses, one fracture will occur every month.
• In the 2006 Epsom Derby, top race horse Horatio Nelson was destroyed after sustaining catastrophic injuries, including fractured cannon and sesamoid bones, a dislocated fetlock joint and open wounds that exposed severe damage to blood vessels, nerves and ligaments.

Whipping

• Hitting a racehorse with a whip of a specified design is regarded as acceptable by the racing authorities in Britain – namely the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), which regulates and enforces the rules as well as helping to organise, fund and promote racing.
• Advocates of the whip argue that it assists horses to perform better and run more safely and that it provides helpful chastisement for when they behave 'badly'. Our report, A Hiding to Nothing (a meticulous analysis of 161 races involving 1500 horses, that were run between October and November 2003), shows that whipping horses is more likely to drive them off a true line and place them and other horses in danger. The same evidence shows that whipping horses is less likely to produce an 'improvement' in behaviour. Rather, they become fearful, hesitant and less likely to perform to their potential.
• The report also shows that horses in a state of total exhaustion and out of contention were beaten. The whip was used on the neck and shoulders, as well as on the hindquarters. Horses being whipped 20, or even 30 or more times during a race was observed. Though the BHA rules were breached numerous times, regulatory stewards took no action.
• 40 of the 161 races featured in the survey (around 25%) were won by horses who were not subjected to any whipping.

Retirement

• The Horserace Betting Levy Board (racing’s principal funding body) was established in the early 1960s when gambling laws were eased. It takes 10% of bookmakers’ annual gross profits and re-channels them into the industry and its associated activities. For 2006/7, the Levy Board was able to draw on close to £100 million. Scandalously, it thought fit to donate just £56,000 to Racehorse Rehabilitation and Retraining. This is an insultingly small amount (0.05% of the Levy’s total income) considering that some 5,000 horses leave British racing each year. There is an equal or an even greater need with respect to the annual ‘crop’ of Thoroughbreds who are produced for racing but never set foot on a racecourse. They are, instead, destroyed, sold off or given away to be used in other equestrian events.

ACTION POINTS

The following initiatives would have an important impact on the welfare of Thoroughbred horses. We need your assistance to ensure they are implemented.

• The publication of comprehensive data on equine mortality, sickness and injury.
• A ban on the whip. It is not merely cruel, but our research shows that it is counterproductive from the point of view of the rider.
• A proper fund for retired Thoroughbreds.
• An independent audit of all racecourses to determine what immediate steps can be taken to reduce mortality and injury. This would be done with reference to data on where and how horses have died and been injured.
• A ban on the Grand National – a deliberately punishing and hazardous race.