racing & CHARITY.

​I find I am in a trough of repetition of late to the point I am almost boring myself. I am a jumping man and the flat tends to drift at this time of year. If it’s not the whip I am going on about, it’s how to give the female rider a leg-up the ladder. And if its neither of those subjects it’s race programming or just how short of useful the B.H.A. has become. Today’s subject I have also written about in the past, though on this occasion it is at least topical.
So to make what I am about to write a little bit different I have chosen to reject Ariel and use a new font, HP Simplified.
No words of praise can be too complimentary when it comes to the efforts of Pat Smullen and Irish racing to help Cancer Research. 1.5-million euros raised during a single weekend must be some sort of sporting record, even if Sheikh Hamdam got the fund started with a donation of half-a-million. It just goes to prove what can be accomplished if everyone pulls in the same direction. Jockeys donating their riding fees, stable staff donating best turned-out prizes, just everyone give, give, giving. It made what in the broad world was a parochial event into a news story that found its way into the living rooms of any home, anywhere. If I were the Curragh executive, I would stage something similar at every Irish Champions Weekend. Demonstrate to those outside the sport the good that racing can bring not only to local communities but to every man, woman and child living anywhere in the world.
Which brings me to my gripe.
The anti-racing brigade are of the set opinion that we, the human element of our sport, use (and they might claim abuse) horses for our economic benefit and for entertainment and that if we care at all for horses it is not enough. We all know this is drivel, poppycock, ignorance. We are, though, slow, if not inefficient, at getting our message across the barrier that separates us from them.
If the B.H.A. were more on the front-foot when it comes to defending our sport, not that we should need to defend any single part of it, the antis would not be gaining ground, and the attention of the public. What is at stake here is the actual long-term future of our sport, if that is not raising the stakes too high.
Instead of consultation, for instance, trials of hands and heel races for professional riders should already be on-going. But that is a topic I have written about too many times in the past. But what the B.H.A. should also be organising as a matter of urgency is a nationwide racing charity day to raise funds for rhorses and other equines. If racing can get together to raise 1.5-million quid for cancer research, something we all might benefit during our lives, why can’t the sport set a similar target to raise the same amount to improve the lives of the animal that is central and pivotal to our sport?
Set aside one Saturday in the calendar where every race meeting and every bookmaker and betting office, every equine charity, makes a supreme joint effort to raise awareness and donations to help not only racehorses in retirement but all horses, including donkey sanctuaries and charities like the Brook Hospital. Being on the front foot means getting our faces in the media, showing the public the work that is done to care for horses both while in racing and after their careers in the sport are over. Horse Racing puts horses in the spotlight to a far greater degree than any other equine activity; we have a responsibility to demonstrate to the public that we do not pay lip service to our duty of care to the horse. Horse Racing should be seen to bring together all equine sporting disciplines in this endeavour to inform the public.
One day a year, during the summer months, obviously, to assist all those people who perform tirelessly picking up the pieces, in extreme cases, caring for equines in all their forms. Is this too much to expect from the B.H.A.? One day spread over every race meeting and other equine events, to inform and educate and raise much needed funds to improve the lives of horses far and wide.
If we can have charity days to raise money for research into diseases that affect us, the human, surely we, as a sport, as part of the equine sporting community, can dedicate a day to the horse, its welfare and to make plain our genuine affection for every horse great or small.