So Who Is Going To Explain This ......

[docicu3]

1) How often do you see bilateral fractures after a horse runs 10F's or any other distance of this magnitude? Is it not more likely that 8 Belle's actually did suffer these injuries after the race given her performance against essentially the best 3 year olds in the country.

To suggest she could "run through" pain of that magnitude is as far from the truth as Colonel John and Pyro were from winning.

2) Have we had enough public outrage over the use of whips on horses to establish guidelines for their use so that jockeys are not "blamed" for the deaths of horses in high profile races?

Whether we are talking about Baze's incident last year or the high profile episodes of last month that created headlines across the pond at the Grand National meet at Aintree involving jocks Eddie Ahern and Kerian Burke who were both suspended for months over whip incidents that cost them both tens of thousands in fines and income. Far too much publicity of the sport is about these unfortunate events rather than celebrating the new stars of our racing season.

Is there no response from the racing community to clarify what is reasonable use of the whip and what is not. Does it not make sense to use retired respected high profile jocks and vets in tandem to make these announcements to the public that would clarify events like Saturday's so a 20 year old jock like Gabriel Saez doesn't become a life long target for verbal and written abuse by zealots and their political agenda that have nothing to do with safe horse racing or animal health.

We need to do things differently........pretty please.