I have to admit so far I have not seen the Irish Grand National and after hearing the latest news nor do I wish to.
The last five years for me have been that of emotional loses on the racetrack all met with the same shock and every time I question my love for the sport.
It first started in 2004, between 2002-2004 I had idolized and won a lot of money from a certain “Dewhurst run. So sure was I that this was next year’s Derby Winner I named my new puppy after him and continued to place ante post bets all winter.
It took me a while longer to latch on to George-didn’t overly impress me on debut as beaten and whilst won races in Ireland they were poor affairs-It was of course the 2000 Guineas that impressed me-he destroyed them and the post race antics were brilliant-here we had an individual who thought for himself, he was intelligent and
chose to do what he wanted.
I followed now “Gorgeous George’s” career closely till that unworthy end in October 2007 he appeared to mature and I’ve never seen him so calm and professional in the Breeders Cup that year BUT what bothered me is why was such a talent run on that surface that night? Here you had a horse whose speed was his asset running on a track not fit for a selling plater let alone one of the best talents in the last 10 years!!!
This hit me hard because I’m a massive fan of Coolmore and Ballydoyle but both Georges and Horatios deaths were avoidable.
I was at Epsom Derby day 2006 Horatio Nelson was plainly not right, the start was delayed for over 5 minutes while the vet looked him over So why did they just not pull him out! He’s a group 1 winner and it was not worth the risk in my opinion derby or not. ersian Punch” I remember staking my biggest ever bet months before Royal Ascot 2003, on the Punch Meister at 25/1 E/W for the Gold Cup-he dually ran a cracker to finished 2nd and followed up with 4 more wins at the grand old ages of 10 and 11, then came his reappearance in the spring of 2004-April 28th to be precise I can still remember it now, I was round my girlfriends at the time had no access to the racing so waited for good old Ceefax to show the results, I waited for what seemed hours then the result popped up-no Persian Punch in first 3 understandable I thought-soft ground-first run etc:
Then just could not believe what I read “Persian Punch Dead” I just sat there shocked and close to tears-no one who is not interested in the sport or horses will ever understand how attached you get to these individuals and my girlfriend at the time could just not figure out why I was so upset.
I tried to explain this was a horse of such you will never see again-A true warrior a battler to the end, Never gave up-if headed he would love it and fight back the abilities you would want in any racehorse is courage and bravery and “Persian Punch” had them both.
So that was the first time I experienced the pain of this great sport-well kind of I remember crying as a child when “Far Lap” died in the film (that was actually very Sad).
I did not think for one minute anything would beat that day how wrong I was to be!
A season later on the scene came two amazing two year old colts, both different one a gutsy little terrier the other possibly the most naturally talented individual to grace a racecourse for many a year these are of course “Horatio Nelson and George Washington”
I instantly took a shine to Horatio wow I though what a horse-a pedigree to win a Derby yet he was an early type winning 4 on the bounce before that unlucky
And witnessing what happened to him scarred me for a long time.
So I lost two of my favorite horses because of Ballydoyles decisions and both should not have happened.
Which brings us forward to last and this year-Wingwalker a smart two year who caught my eye sadly died on the gallops, And Exotic Dancer was a real favorite of mine-backed him in every race for the past 3 years, He did not jump as well as usual at Aintree and I did expect him to catch Madison de Berlais on the run in but still applauded his usual gutsy effort and his post death was a bitter pill to swallow-could not believe it! And then today when the same stables Wichita Lineman lost his life after than brilliant performance at Cheltenham it really does question your belief sometimes.
There are many more who have prematurely left us, Best Mate, Rooster Booster, Detroit City, Gypsy King, Landseer, Ei Ei all talented horses that have gone-just goes to show we need to pay homage to these brilliant animals whilst they grace our lives.
I am not the Trainer, Owner or lad/lass of these horses and I feel upset and gutted so only god knows how they feel and my respects go out to all of them.