Fatalities pile pressure on racing

TWO high- profile equine deaths at the Cheltenham Festival yesterday heaped more pressure on the sport to improve its image.

The death of Sir Erec after he broke a leg in the first race cast a shadow over the day.

Then in the Magners Gold Cup the Willie Mullins-trained Invitation Only had to be put down after a fall. Last year, six horses died at the Festival and a seventh was put down later. Changes were introduced, including pre-race vet checks, but Ballyward had also been fatally injured on the opening day and Nick Rust, chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority, said all three fatalities would be reviewed.

The incident involving hot favourite Sir Erec took place halfway through the Triumph Hurdle — shown on ITV — and was particularly tragic because the four- year- old broke a leg on the flat. The colt had recovered from a stone bruise last week and had to be re-shod before the race, but was considered fit.

The BHA confirmed that it was ‘one of those catastrophic injuries that we are not able to predict’ and David Sykes, director of equine health and welfare at the BHA, said the horse had passed all pre-race veterinary checks.

He said: ‘Putting a shoe on a horse at the start is not going to cause that sort of injury.’ A report from the stewards noted that full radiograph images of Sir Erec were taken before the race, and there was no evidence to suggest he would suffer an injury.

Rust said: ‘There will always be an element of risk that can never be entirely eliminated.’

RSPCA equine consultant David Muir said: ‘I am gutted that any horses have died.

‘I will go through every single death and look to see if there was anything there that was avoidable.’