Italian Horse Protection ONLUS |

Death of two young horses at the Cesena racecourse: it's a long series of deaths IHP writes to the Minister: “Ban races for animals under the age of 5”

18/07/2022

Banning races at racecourses for horses under the age of 5, compulsory blood sampling for all horses before a race, compulsory and automatic autopsy in the event of death of a horse at the racecourse, obligation to have a reference clinic and two ambulances for each raceday, and arrival of horses in the morning by 10.

These are the requests that IHP made today to the Ministry of Agriculture via a formal letter, after yet another death at the Cesena racetrack. The letter was addressed to Senator Francesco Battistoni, Mipaaf undersecretary responsible for horse racing, and to Francesco Saverio Abate, Head of the Horse Racing Department.

“In the last 20 days, two young horses died on the track in Cesena. The last one a few days ago, presumably from a heart attack: her name was Dream Stecca and at the age of 3 she had already competed in 7 races. In June, 4-year-old Carabela died while racing at the same course. Last year, yet again in Cesena, Alleluia, a 5-year-old horse who had already run 116 races, no less, lost his life”, explains Sonny Richichi, President of IHP, who continues:“In 2020, we documented the death of 4-year-old Aramist, 3-year-old Billionaire Glory and 5-year-old Zufolo Grif at the racecourses of Trieste, Taranto and Follonica. In 2019 we documented the death of Roman, Finger Cross and Moorhouse Lady (the latter was only 4), all in Treviso, and Willy Wildwind (3 years old) in Siracusa. Unfortunately, this list is far from complete: we have become aware of these accidents through the reports we receive, but deaths during races at the racecourses are undoubtedly many more”.

“They are all very young horses. Racing 2, 3 or 4-year-old foals, who have not yet completed their physiological and musculoskeletal development, inevitably raises the risk of serious accidents to the joints, as well as the risk of heart attack or lung failure. And it often leads to death. We therefore urge Mipaaf to take urgent action to immediately put an end to this unacceptable chain of deaths of young foals at Italian racetracks”, concludes the president of IHP.

In horseracing all this takes place in a context characterised by doubts about anti-doping tests: to the best of our knowledge, currently only the winning horse of the race and a horse drawn by lot, or chosen, undergo blood testing. No samples are taken before races.

Finally, but not less important, we want to point out that races often start in the afternoon around 5 pm (Sassari, Naples, Follonica, Merano just to name a few examples in recent days): since the only obligation for horses is to arrive at the racecourse only two hours before the race, it often happens that they are transported during the central daytime hours to arrive at 2 or 3 pm, and this clearly contributes to their general malaise.

While we work to inform the public and put an end to this sad system financed with public money, we urgently seek to set some boundaries to at least limit the biggest inconsistencies in the system and to reduce risks for the horses.

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