For Immediate Release, Saturday 19 November 2022?

Horse Killed After Races Go Ahead Despite Torrential Rain

Five-year-old gelding Holyell was killed at New Plymouth Raceway yesterday after racing in heavy rain and fracturing his femur in race three. He was eased down by the jockey around the 100m mark and a post-race examination revealed the catastrophic injury. Subsequently, he was euthanised by a veterinarian.

The track condition was downgraded twice, from an 8 to a heavy 10 before Race 3 even commenced, yet all races still went ahead on this dangerous surface.

Taranaki Animal Save and Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR) activists protesting outside the event say that the races should never have gone ahead yesterday. “We had so much heavy rain leading up to this event. The ground was saturated and extremely slippery. Forcing the horses to run in those conditions is knowingly putting them at risk of slipping and being injured, and now, likely because of the irresponsible call to go ahead a horse is dead. It’s completely unacceptable,” activist Summer Aitken states.

“Horses being forced to race until their bones break is not a sport, it’s blatant animal abuse. Behind the booze, bets, and fancy dress of horse-racing is broken femurs, cardiac attacks, and bleeding lungs. Holyell is the 10th horse to have died on New Zealand tracks this year alone. How many more must suffer for human entertainment and gambling profits before this blood sport is abolished?” says activist Elin Arbez.

Taranaki Animal Save and CPR are calling for a complete ban on the practice of horse racing in New Zealand.