31/08/2021
"He was only 5 years old and had 116 races behind him. The horse race system considers horses as objects"
The death on track of Alleluja LZ, who was taking part in the last trot race of the day at 11:40 p.m. last Saturday at the Cesena racecourse, is utterly appalling. In horseracing, perhaps more than in other fields, it is really astonishing to learn that horses are put on track at less than two years of age, when their musculoskeletal system cannot be considered fully developed and won’t be until the age of 4-5", says IHP President Sonny Richichi.
Richichi adds: “The video of the race does not show the moment the animal collapses on track, but it can be seen in a frame, when speakers say that there is a horse on the ground and in the distance you see people running towards it. Sources in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry confirm that the horse is dead. An aneurysm is suspected but there is no official confirmation at the moment. We do know that samples for anti-doping tests have been taken, the results of which should be available soon.
"Whatever the cause of death, if a five-year-old horse has already run 116 races, the first of which at the age of two, we are clearly facing a flawed system: even the most ardent bettor has to admit it beyond every hypocrisy. A system financed with public money by a State that still considers horses as inanimate objects”.
Frame taken from the SNAI website. Images reproduced with the kind permission of MIPAAF
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