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| For Immediate Release, Wednesday 1 May, 2019 GRAVE FEARS FOR BLUES BREAKER AND OUR YANGTZE BREAKING – Blues Breaker took a horror fall at Warrnambool, and Our Yangtze “went amiss” (a term commonly used by race callers when a horse “breaks down”) Repeated calls to the track stewards have resulted in eventually being told that Blues Breaker sustained ligament damage to his shoulder and Our Yangtze sustained suspensory ligament damage. Both these injuries can prematurely end their ability to compete and without a retirement plan, makes them likely to be killed for pet food. “Last year we saw the industry try to cover up the death of Now And Zen at the Warrnambool track. Race day investigators filmed staff attempt to load him onto a float even though he was unable to bare weight on his near hind leg. He was taken away from the track and euthanised the very next day. Still to this day his death is not mentioned in the stewards reports.” Said Elio Celotto, Campaign Director for the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR). Stewards are not required to report on the death of a horse if they are killed away from the track. CPR believes taking injured horses away from the track to be killed elsewhere is becoming more common so that track death reporting can be avoided, as public scrutiny of the industry grows. “We hold grave fears for both Blues Breaker and Our Yangtze and sadly cannot expect transparency from the industry so we may never know their fate.” He said. Warrnambool is responsible for killing more horses in jumps races than any other track in Australia with 25% of all deaths since 2007 coming from the there. “The track staff would be no stranger to seeing dead horses and doing their best to cover these up, with 23 dead horses on their hands (that we know of) from jumps races alone since 2007.” “The risks are so high and the tracks so grueling, that last year’s starters had a 12% chance of failing to even finish the course. Even worse, in the 2018 jumps season the odds of a horse being killed on track was 1:22”* he said. “What kind of so-called entertainment has an acceptable death toll?” CPR will be holding a demonstration tomorrow outside the racecourse, in advance of one of the most dangerous jumps races in the country – The Grand Annual Steeplechase. Demonstration Tomorrow What: Warrnambool May Racing Carnival Protest When: Thursday 2 May, 12pm onwards Where: Warrnambool Racecourse Main Entrance The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses will also be joined by the members of the Animal Justice Party Western Region Group who too strongly oppose jumps racing and have a policy to see the activity immediately banned. CPR remains committed to seeing jumps racing banned and will be monitoring jumps races throughout the 2019 season in both Victoria and South Australia- the only 2 states that conduct jumps races. ENDS Further Information 2018 Jumps Racing Statistics (Victoria only) Number of races 71 Number of starters 572 Horses killed 7 (+1 in SA) 1 in 82 starters killed on track 1 in 16.3 starters fell Based on the above statistics, 1 horse will be killed and 5 horses will fall at the 2019 Warrnambool jumps Carnival. *178 horses were forced to race in the 2018 jumps season. 8 were killed. The odds of being killed as one of those horses was 1:22. [email protected] For More information: horseracingkills.com |
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