Horse racing deaths prompt welfare standoff
For all the effort put into animal welfare, more racehorses than ever are dying on our race tracks. Olivia Caldwell reports.
Horse racing junkies and animal welfare activists often clash, yet each proclaims to have the horses’ best interests at heart, with love for the muscle-toned speedsters at the centre of all they do.
Both agree that horse racing will never be free of death or injury, with New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) animal welfare general manager Martin Burns saying fatalities can’t be ruled out.
‘‘There’s an element of risk because it’s a challenging and high-paced sport with large animals so where you’ve got those factors there will always be risk.’’
SAFE for Animals New Zealand head of campaigns Marianne Macdonald says the billion-dollar racing industry treats horses as if they were disposable commodities.
‘‘Every animal-loving Kiwi agrees that animals shouldn’t be dying for entertainment. It’s time for horse racing to be put out to pasture,’’ she says. ‘‘It’s impossible to make it safe when these animals are running at such speeds, bunched together or jumping over large fences, and whipped to push them even faster when they’re tiring.’’
When a horse is put down in a high-profile race, as the ill-fated The Cliffsofmoher was in the Melbourne Cup last month, the fallout makes a divorce court look friendly.
The Irish stayer was the sixth horse to die in the historic race since 2013. He broke a shoulder, with millions watching on TV.
Meanwhile, six jockeys in the race were fined for excessive use of the whip.
Awapuni trainer Lisa Latta says those being fined were under huge pressure to win. ‘‘It is a race worth a lot of money and six jockeys got fined because they’re all trying, it is competitive pressure. They are trying to give their horse every chance."
Activists have long called for a ban on racing, while fans say the horses are well looked after, love racing and, although accidents happen, it’s not that often.
But while the industry says it’s doing its best to ensure animal safety, the number of horses who meet an early end continues to rise. Statistics show a steady increase from 2011, with slightly fewer than one horse in a thousand starts not making it back to the stable after a race.
Manawatu¯ jockey Zinjete Moki has been riding horses for over a decade. Experience tells her if a horse doesn’t want to race, it won’t.
Like many in the industry, she firmly believes racehorses are born to run. A good horse hates to lose, she says. And in her eyes, there is no animal welfare issue.
‘‘No, I don’t think it’s cruel. It’s just they are 500-kilogram animals. You can’t make them do something they don’t want to do.’’
Dismounting from Got the Call, fresh from a race at Awapuni in Palmerston North, Moki pats the mare affectionately.
Equine veins are bulging, manes are dripping with sweat, muscles are twitching as the horses make their way off the track and back to the stables.
They are checked by a vet who stands behind the fence. All appear to be passed.
On raceday, physical examination is done while horses walk around the birdcage. There is no one-on-one time with the vet. There is a schedule to keep.
After a race, a thoroughbred can develop an exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage in the lungs, caused by exertion. It’s so common the afflicted are referred to as ‘‘bleeders’’.
Independent research says more than 50 per cent of racehorses experience bleeding, which is one of the main causes of racing deaths.
The on-call vet says actual figures are much higher. She says there is no proof of the longterm harm to a horse’s health with the smaller bleeds, as there have been no studies.
‘‘It’s debatable, I suppose . . . definitely your big bleeds, that can lead to sudden death.’’
NZTR rules state that, if blood is seen coming out a horse’s nose, the jockey and trainer are given a warning. Twice and the horse is considered retired.
The vet – who does not want to be named – has seen several horse deaths at a racecourse. Also a horse owner, she says more time with the horses before and after racing could help pick up potentially fatal heart abnormalities.
Racing trainers are better educated on horse care and wellbeing than those who own horses in the back paddock, she says. ‘‘I
‘‘Take away the gambling and the industry will die – just as the horses forced to race continue to die.’’
Marianne Macdonald of SAFE
trust the trainers – they are all very knowledgeable. They are not going to put a horse in the ring if they think there is something wrong with them.’’
Some trainers are better at spotting injuries early and resting a horse, while others can push too far.
As 12 horses parade in the birdcage, their legs seem out of proportion to the powerful torsos. ‘‘They have been bred for speed,’’ the vet says. ‘‘Their legs are fairly comparable to others, but they are not as thick, or as heavy.
‘‘They are all going to have a breaking point, but we currently don’t have a method to measure that breaking point.’’
Given more time with the horse, and an accurate measurement, injuries that often result in euthanasia could be prevented, she says.
‘‘Even X-rays don’t necessarily show up stress fractures
. . . none of us really know until they fail.’’
On the other side of the racing gates are the animal welfare groups. Macdonald says her concerns are around deaths and injuries, as opposed to treatment off the track.
‘‘Racing puts horses at high risk of injury when they fall, collide or hurtle into barriers, it can be horrific. They suffer broken legs, shoulders, shattered spines, burst arteries and heart attacks.’’
In Australia, 119 horses died on the track between August
2017 and July 2018 – most from front limb injuries.
In New Zealand, there were 25 deaths in that period – 0.94 out of
1000 starts nationally – according to NZTR figures. Statistics show a steady increase from 0.68 in
2011, when NZTR first started recording horse deaths.
‘‘When you are dealing with small numbers in a large population, it does jump around a bit,’’ Burns says. ‘‘It sort of fluctuates between 15 and 20 deaths a year.
‘‘There’s not a cause for concern in terms of a pattern . . . It sometimes comes down to individual horses, and the fates combine and more of them in one year have an injury – then the numbers will be what they will be.’’
New Zealand horse racing is less dangerous than in the United States. The American Jockey Club listed 484 deaths in 2015, a drop from 1.89 per 1000 starts in 2014 to 1.62 in 2015.
Although New Zealand’s rate is increasing, the contrast with the US is due to good care, Burns says. Kiwi horses are not ‘‘boxed’’ in their juvenile years, like many overseas. They are given space to run, which builds stronger muscles and bones, preventing injury.
However, animal welfare groups believe racing will never be safe enough. ‘‘Take away the gambling and the industry will die – just as the horses forced to race continue to die,’’ Macdonald says.
Holding a jockey’s whip, it is quite apparent it can inflict pain. A whip is about 60cm long. It has a black gripped handle, carbon fibre middle and a padded leather end.
NZTR rules state jockeys can whip for the first 600m, after which the horse must take five strides for every whip, then for the last 100m those in contention can whip as they see fit. Hard hitting is ‘‘actively policed’’, says Burns.
Macdonald and SAFE don’t buy it. ‘‘Horses have such sensitive skin that they can feel a fly land on their skin, so whipping causes inevitable pain.
‘‘We’re concerned that profit is being put before the safety and lives of these animals. The owners and trainers of horses often appear to see them as nothing more than commodities to be exploited.’’
Moki and Latta reject that view utterly. There is no room for cruelty in racing, Moki insists.
‘‘I would just like any one of those people to come to a raceday and see how well looked after they are, the way we treat them. You wouldn’t have a job in a racing stable if you were a cruel person. You would get found out very easily.
‘‘Horses will give it away too, they are kind of like dogs. If a dog gets hit it’ll flinch. It is the same with horses.
‘‘They are so important. They are what makes our living, they make it possible. So they are everything to us.’’
Latta, who has won more than
$12 million in prizemoney and trained more than 700 winners, is so confident of her staff’s care of her 60-plus horses that she sends welfare advocates an open invitation to her Awapuni stables, no booking required.
Whenever a horse is injured or killed, it is hard to take, she says.
‘‘Touch wood, I haven’t had one [die] for a very long time, but it does happen. They’re around
500 kilos hitting the ground. ‘‘[A horse death] is very hard, look, you feel it, your staff feel it, we all feel it. They come first. If we haven’t got a happy, sound, healthy horse, how are we going to win races?’’
In addition to horses injured or killed in races, those who don’t make the grade or retire as ‘‘losers’’ are often discarded. It is referred to by animal welfare groups as ‘‘wastage’’, and is a big concern.
SAFE’s Macdonald says only 300 out of every 1000 foals bred for racing will make it to a race. Almost 9000 thoroughbred horses born each year will be considered unusable.
In Australia, 9 per cent of Victorian thoroughbreds die or are euthanised as a result of illness, injury or not being up to a race standard. About 0.4 per cent end up in an abattoir.
In New Zealand, the Ministry for Primary Industries does not have exact figures on how many horses are sent to the meatworks each year, but says they are not ‘‘significant’’.
Ministry communications adviser Leigh Strange says horse welfare complaints over the past two years have been relatively minor or unsubstantiated.
However, none of those complaints related to raceday incidents, as they are dealt with by the Racing Integrity Unit, an independent organisation.
Its general manager, Mike Godber, says rules and regulations have been tightened over the past decade and simplified for the benefit of everyone.
Welfare agencies such as World Animal Protection New Zealand are unconvinced, saying that using horses for entertainment is outright wrong.
Senior campaign manager Ben Pearson says racing agencies can apply quick fixes to the industry, but the routine deaths of horses mean racing will always be a form of animal cruelty.
NZTR’s Martin Burns counters that the industry provides what is fading in Kiwi society: a sense of community, that gathers racegoers from all walks of life.
‘‘When you hear about it talked as the sport of kings, it is not the case. In New Zealand it is a great leveller. Everybody has a chance on the track.
‘‘At raceday, millionaires and paupers will mix and everyone has a common interest . . . people do it because they love it and not because of the money.’’