John Duggan writes that the sport of horse racing needs to take a zero-tolerance approach to the duty of care...
Who would sit on a dead horse? I wouldn’t. I would find it an intrusive and disturbing thing to do. Would you? I very much doubt it.
If it was an accident for Gordon Elliott to find himself being photographed sitting on a dead horse on his gallops, or if he was concerned about the image out of basic human instinct and decency, surely he would have grabbed the phone of the person who took the picture in order for the offending image to be deleted? As a responsible trainer?
What I saw in that picture was an entitlement that is damaging racing’s reputation in the eyes of the wider public both here and overseas. In that moment, Gordon Elliott forgot that it is the horse that delivered him fame and fortune. He has described it as a 'moment of madness' that he will spend the rest of his life paying for. The outrage is genuine, as this is a front-page story, a LiveLine topic. It fits a narrative that the welfare of the horse is secondary in racing circles, with the animal as a prop. The image does a disservice to the thousands of people in the industry, many of them on low pay, who work dawn to dusk with the animals they love. We know them. We speak to them every week on Friday Night Racing on OTB.
The Elliott incident follows the drugging of a horse at Tramore, a horse trained by Charles Byrnes, who will now serve a six-month ban for negligence. CCTV wasn’t present at the course, so it was inconclusive who nobbled the poor horse. It was a nefarious act linked to betting that put the horse’s life and arguably that of his jockey and other jockeys in danger.
The timing of this Elliott incident couldn’t be worse. The Cheltenham Festival begins a fortnight from today and the sport is still recovering from becoming the lightning rod for people’s anger and worry at the start of the pandemic a year ago. Whether that was fair or not is moot, because racing can’t afford to keep scoring public relations own goals. Perhaps conscious of this, the British Horseracing Authority has moved swiftly, banning Elliott's horses from Britain until the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board completes its investigation.
These stories pertaining to Elliott and Byrnes add up to a sense that racing is governed by its own rules, in a bubble of impunity and protection from proper accountability and meaningful punishments for transgressions. The duty of care for the animal has been absent from these recent episodes. Gordon Elliott is not a small trainer, new to the arena. He’s the second most successful Irish jumps trainer and he’s trained the Aintree Grand National winner 3 times. He should have known better. He's apologised to his staff and the industry and he has defended his record when it comes to animal welfare. The problem for him is that he's closing the stable door after the story has bolted.
I loath cancel culture and I accept that human beings make mistakes. However, Gordon Elliott should serve a lengthy ban for bringing the sport into disrepute before rehabilitation can take place. The image of the sport has to be spotless. Why? 76.8 million reasons why. That’s how much horse racing, a minority sport, will receive from the Irish state in 2021. That’s your money as a taxpayer.
It’s time for proper accountability and a zero-tolerance approach around the duty of care for these animals to protect the thousands of stable staff, breeders, trainers, owners, and jockeys that live and breathe this sport for their livelihoods. It’s clear to me that the sport is in the crosshairs of the court of public opinion. Gold Cup and Grand National-winning jockey Mick Fitzgerald was in tears over this yesterday and one could feel that the argument racing people make every day about their love of horses and the duty of care had been dealt a serious setback.
As Gordon Elliott said himself last night, his actions were 'indefensible'. The worry for him and his staff now is that when public fury subsides, big owners will quietly slip away. He's facing an existential crisis as a trainer. Time will tell if there's enough forgiveness for his actions.
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