(26th November 2012)

In about a month the jump racing (steeple chase, hurdles, cross country) season will start at Capannelle racecourse in Rome.

While we still have in our eyes the images the ruinous falls that, in this kind of races, caused the death of three horses and the wounding of others (read our news about Catbar and Nobel and about Errante), we read on “Cavallo Magazine” that the director of Capannelle racecourse is talking about their revival. To do that, he also play the card of a twinning with a Czech Republic racecourse, which will send 30 horses to Rome.

Yet we had expected to hear talks about how to avoid other further incidents, maybe the hypothesis of a study to analyze the causes of so many deaths: this year, at the Merano racecourse only, more horses have been killed on the track than in all the palii put together, at least according to the scarce news found in the press.

As we have previously done, we firmly ask to the Ministry of Agriculture, which now oversees all the matters pertaining horse racing and breeding, not to take in any account the requests of a revival of horse racing coming from involved associations that keep on showing indifference about the fate on the horses in their daily appeals and statements.

An increased attention to the horses’ needs is not just a moral duty, but would also help who like us has too often the impression the horse racing world is tied to huge economical interests, which led to the doping episodes and fixed races we all know.

We ask the Ministry to start a serious path of protection of the horses’ wellbeing, with control procedures, transparency and serious sanctions for who commits crimes or breaks the rules.