Hurdles deaths make mainstream media

[Thomass]

So Godber gets on FOXNEWS ZB and tells the sceptical non racing population that it's all tickety boo and we have all sorts of the "renouned for being the best in the World" stuff in place...

...to manage deaths

No Mickey...that's for injuries 

Reducing the Jumping death tolls includes having far safer fences with optimal colour ranges that horses can actually sight....which is what the British research uncovered...and we've ignored

Any non racing person seeing the Rotorua death where the Rodgerson horse was catapulted into the air after being hit mid ships would re-coil in horror...

Try telling Generation Z it's part of the 'love' that horses enjoy post flat racing and they'll look at you dumbstruck...

[Weasel]

As a complete aside, if I were a jumps trainer I'd avoid that hurdle race at Arawa Park next year ..two years in row a fatality (Assign this year; Dontbreakmyheart the previous). Very sad, diff circumstances of course ...

did anyone notice how small / low the brush hurdles were at Sandown last Saturday...the horses hardly have to jump 'em just skip through them...the upside is there's less chance of falling; the downside is they don't slow down.

Decades ago a relative of mine won the Cup Hurdle at Flemington (3200m) on Cup Day ..winners time was less than 2 seconds slower than the Cup itself!. This profession is not for the faint-hearted.

[Chief Stipe]

12 minutes ago, Weasel said:

did anyone notice how small / low the brush hurdles were at Sandown last Saturday...the horses hardly have to jump 'em just skip through them...the upside is there's less chance of falling; the downside is they don't slow down.

 

There has been debate previously that low hurdles actually are more dangerous.  A higher hurdle and the horse is more likely to sight it and put in.