It will come as no surprise to many readers of this blog that I have been at a meeting, on a course, this week. I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday lunchtimes and afternoons at Cheltenham racecourse (and this afternoon was sitting in front of the TV watching the racing).
I go racing for several reasons, the fresh air, the racing, the strong possibility of winning money (this year was a very good year in that respect) but mainly to spend quality time with a varied bunch of friends who are intent on having fun. It’s the craic as the Irish would say.
I know very little about horses (but quite a bit about their form) and, to be honest, I’m not really that interested in horses – they mostly look the same to me! I’m interested in football but not footballers too.
And so my highlights of my time in the Cotswolds are never laced with phrases like ‘What a great equine athlete he is’ but more often ‘That was a great bet!’.
So here are my top 10, entirely personal, memories of the Cheltenham Festival 2017;
- Margaret’s pie
- Frank having a few winners
- Rosemary’s lemon drizzle cake
- Sally spotting the Great Grey Shrike where we normally see the Short-eared Owls (and there was a SEO too)
- my first Red Kite from the members’ lawn (on Wednesday)
- Special Tiara winning my favourite race of the Festival at 11/1 when I backed it at 31/1 that morning (big, big result!)
- getting the first three winners in my Lucky 15 (Yorkhill, Presenting Percy, Un de Sceaux) even if ‘Harry’ didn’t know what I meant in the fourth.
- a conversation about birds’ nests
- the warmth of the sun on Wednesday
- the look on two birders’ faces when a car of obvious race-goers stopped, wound down the window and told them the shrike was behind them
It shows that birders actually read this blog as there was 1 dislike! Must have been them that were trying to find the shrike!
Given your attitude towards the barbaric sport of grouse shooting, how can you support an equally barbaric “sport” that results so often in death of the horse? Last year 7 horses died or were put down during this meeting and 3 more in just the first two days this year. I would be interested to know how you justify this double standard.
I had a thoroughbred for 5 years. He absolutely loved running with other horses but always wanted to be at the front, in the lead – an instinct from escaping predators. As far as jumping was concerned it was the thing he loved doing best – got so excited if there was something to jump over. He was never in the field he’d been put in – jumped out into another often. It was me who didn’t much care for the jumping bit, as I inevitably fell off. It’s a great shame about the deaths but everyone tries to minimise this. You couldn’t force a horse to race, he or she has to enjoy doing it or wouldn’t be any good. They do have minds of their own. The worry I have is what happens when they are too old or don’t make the grade but I don’t regard the racing itself as barbaric. It’s a partnership between (wo)man and animal. My horse used to stop and wait for me to pick myself up after I had hit the deck.
Apparently 1511 horses have died on racecourses since 2007. I wonder how many die off course for the “sport of kings”.
http://www.horsedeathwatch.com/#c=3&j=&g=&sd=&ed=&p=1
Another example of animals dying for mans sporting pleasure.
If the activity of National Hunt racing was proven to result in the systematic persecution of birds of prey, habitat destruction, reduced biodiversity and a negative impact on water quality, then you may have a valid point. But as it isn’t – you don’t.
Yeah – I have to agree Pete ……. I was more than a little phased when I read this particular blog ……
As far ads I am aware, racehorse trainers don’t feel the need to kill off all the birds of prey to protect their animals!
I would rather be a fit, strong pampered race horse than be shivering in a field somewhere, alone. How many horses die out hunting?
I really enjoyed reading this!
Nowt like a day at the nags – horses literally love running, it’s what they do!
So do dogs – enjoy running that is – but that doesn’t mean to say that they have to be raced and possibly bumped off if they don’t make the grade ……
So Mark you are vehemently against sporting exploitation of birds and naked capitalism yet revel in sporting exploitation of horses and betting? How do you square that cognitive dissonance? Sorry but you’ve lost a fan. Disappointed. And the attempt to justify/appeal to followers by including bird spotting is crass.
‘vehemently against sporting exploitation of birds’
He is? I must have missed the chapters in ‘Inglorious’ and ‘Fighting for birds’ and the many blog’s in which our host has expressed his vehement opposition to shooting.
Willfully misrepresenting our hosts views in an attempt to make a cheap dig at his expense is very poor stuff and not remotely constructive. Grow up.
‘Sporting exploitation’ and ‘shooting’ are entirely different contexts. I am ‘vehemently against the sporting exploitation of birds’ but not against shooting for the pot …… It is the mass slaughter of birds for the bag – the sporting exploitation – and the associated habitat and animal destruction which I thought we were all against, hence promoting a ban of driven grouse shooting.
On a personal point, I think your reply rather rude. Mr Gill was brave asking for a reasoned explanation of Dr Avery’s comments on his blog. I’m sure there are several followers in the same boat. Possessing a point of view which differs from anyone else’s doesn’t mean that the owner needs to ‘grow up’. Rather the person disagreeing with that point of view needs to exhibit a little tolerance.
I’m perfectly tolerate of the point of view with that horse racing, particularly National Hunt racing, is morally questionable – it’s a moral conundrum I’m still wrestling with.
I’m not particularly tolerant however of those who seek to misrepresent and conflate people’s views in order to have a snide dig at them.