Nick Luck: give RSPCA the red card
Sunday 23 September 2012
Get Nick Luck's weekly column first in Racing Plus every Saturday, and you can get it for half-price here!
In truth, it is pretty hard to criticise any of the proposed tweaks to the Grand National, as announced this week.
It is less difficult, however, to be extremely anxious over the future of the race.
For the most part, Aintree and the BHA have addressed the ongoing safety concerns by melding the right blend of common sense and expediency.
The one fundamental change – to the start of the race – is also borne of an attempt to make the event fairer, more efficient and more professional.
Pleasingly, it is not rooted in the rather more homespun notion that horses build up too much momentum on the long run to the first fence, a theory for which there is limited reliable evidence.
No-one would argue that the infrastructure of what is a unique racecourse should always be modernised and well-maintained: there can be no objections to better watering, superior turf husbandry and improved fence building.
And the most welcome addition of all comes in the shape of an additional catching pen at fence four in order that subsequent carnage and potential fatality caused by loose horses can be minimised. Three cheers for a measure that is informed by simple research and data, rather than by pressure groups.
And here’s the rub: the BHA, understandably enough, is much more worried about how this will play with ‘reputable’ lobby groups such as the RSPCA, whilst battening down the hatches in advance of more overtly hostile fire from Animal Aid and the Daily Mail.
Whoever decided that the RSPCA should have a seat at racing’s table should seriously consider revisiting that position, as their motivation is looking increasingly cynical. At least with Animal Aid, you know where you stand: you are happy to defend the guiding principles of horseracing against an organisation whose beliefs run counter to the notion of a rural economy and the interdependence of man and animal.
But, sad though it is, many of these charities operate in just as sharp elbowed a fashion as the most mercenary and ruthless business.
Make no mistake, there will be someone scurrying around the corridors of a highly-paid PR agency somewhere cutting out all mentions of the RSPCA in the newspapers and presenting them to their marketing team in a laminated ring-binder.
Received wisdom within racing circles is that RSPCA (there’s another one for you, team) equine consultant David Muir is “good news”. I’m guessing that the powers that be think it better to have him in the tent, aiming out, as it were.
But Muir’s ethical radar is all over the shop when it comes to the Grand National. He says he is not “seeking change”, yet calls for fewer runners and the elimination of drop fences “on a rolling programme of change.”
He says that he doesn’t want to see “the ethos of the race going”, but threatens – and I use that word advisedly – “lobbying for fundamental change” if there is another fatality or major pile-up. Well, I’m sorry David, you can slice it however you like, but non-completions are part of the ethos of the race: it is inherently difficult.
And who decided that the RSPCA had the authority or the wherewithal to issue racing a so-called “yellow card”?
You cannot decide that you are happy with the race as it stands, then unhappy with it in the immediate aftermath if a horse dies.
You are either in favour of the way the race is conducted before and after, or not in favour.
I suspect that what Muir really favours is a review of the race every year, so he can toss in his thoroughly illogical two-bobs’ worth on a regular basis, thus using the profile of the race to get plenty more mentions for his organisation.
Racing lives in perpetual fear of lobby groups, and would never be so brazenly undiplomatic as to scratch the respectable veneer of the RSPCA.
I suggest that you privately, however, give their views on the Grand National the red card.
Get Nick Luck's weekly column first in Racing Plus every Saturday, and you can get it for half-price here!
Comments
Please sign in to post a comment.
I fear that the animal rights lobby will win over in the end. The National will go the way of smoking in pubs, adventurous childhoods and animal circuses.
Roger Sweetapple | 7 months agoAs is they’re wont Malky
Anthony Slone | 7 months agoi fully agree with your comments on the rspca they just wont to keep there selves at the forefront of the argument
Malcolm Whelan | 7 months ago