WALSH SORRY
Racing pundit apologises for saying ‘a hiding wouldn’t be good enough’ for ‘dirty, rotten, cowardly’ horse that refused a fence
RACING commentator Ted Walsh has apologised after saying ‘a hiding wouldn’t be good enough’ for a horse after it refused a fence at Punchestown.
However, he fell short of apologising for his comments about the horse, including it was ‘a dirty, rotten, cowardly so and so’, and ‘chicken-hearted’.
His remarks were condemned by the Minister of State for Agriculture, Pippa Hackett and several animal charities who called for him to be taken off-air.
On Saturday’s racing coverage on RTÉ, Mr Walsh said: ‘I’ll tell you one thing, a hiding wouldn’t be good enough for him.’
His comments came on the final day of the five-day Punchestown
‘An unfortunate turn of phrase’
racing festival, as RTÉ replayed the clip of the horse, Transprint, refusing the hurdle in the threemile Dooley Insurance Group Cross Country Chase race.
He said: ‘Look at the dirty, rotten so and so. God, he’s a chickenhearted so and so, a dirty, rotten, cowardly so and so.’
Transprint suddenly darted left to avoid the grass embankment hurdle, which it had already jumped in a previous lap of the three-mile course. The jockey was thrown from the horse and curled up in a ball to avoid injury.
In a statement released by RTÉ to the Irish Daily Mail last night, Mr Walsh said: ‘When analysing a horse’s refusal to jump an obstacle which led to a young man suffering a heavy fall, I said that “a hiding wouldn’t be good enough for him”. This was an unfortunate turn of phrase and in no way reflects my views on the welfare of animals. I would never condone the use of physical force on any animal, and I sincerely apologise for any offence that my words caused.’ RTÉ added that it had no further comment to make. Hilltop Animal Sanctuary in Clare demanded to know why he wasn’t taken off-air after ‘this shocking comment’ Former chief executive of the ISPCA, Dr Andrew Kelly, said: ‘I hope he will never set foot in an RTÉ studio again or be used as a pundit at any race course.’
÷THERE was much hilarity when the British MP caught looking at porn on his phone during a debate in the House of Commons claimed he’d initially stumbled upon the images while looking up farm machinery and then went back for another look. But now it seems as though Neil Parish might be telling the truth, because there’s a brand of combine harvester called a Dominator, and friends suggest that the internet may have led him astray when he put that word into a search engine. So he was basically ambushed by scenes from 50 Shades Of Grey. At least Boris will sympathise – he was ambushed by a birthday cake.