HERE'S TO ALL OF THOSE IN RACING WHO LOVE THEIR HORSES AND TREAT THEM WITH DIGNITY EVERY DAY

By Graham Potter | Sunday, November 19, 2017

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

There were some worrying moments before the running of the Group 1 Emirates Stakes at Flemington last Saturday and the way things subsequently played out is an absolute credit to all of those involved in providing care and comfort to the multiple Group 1, New Zealand gelding Gingernuts who sustained an injury on the way to the start.

In the moments directly after the injury occurred, contrary to the way some radical animal rights groups like to depict what happens in racing, nothing ... absolutely nothing ... was more important to anybody in racing than the well-being of the horse.

The huge crowd understood that and the tight racing schedule didn’t matter anymore. Nervous tension, big race expectation were all put on hold until the nature of Gingernuts’ injury and the short term strategy for managing the damage was determined.

It is now a matter of record that the actions of those on the front line out on the track and those who took over the care once Gingernuts was successfully delivered to the Veterinary Clinic in Werribee were outstanding.

Gingernuts had fractured a pastern. An operation, in which screws were inserted in his leg, went smoothly and, although he has some way to go, the four-year-old is now reportedly on the path to recovery.

That is a great outcome and, as unfortunate as the circumstances were, the story did produce a telling example of just how much horses mean to racing’s participants.

An owner of Gingernuts had to be treated in the grandstand after apparently fainting while Gingernuts was being attended to. Do you think he cared for anything other than the horse’s well-being?

Talk to any owner, trainer or jockey and, while they might have hopes and dreams beyond that, their first port of call always is to say they ‘hope the horse and jockey comes back safe.’

Watch most strappers and the way in which they interact with their horses and you can’t help seeing how special a relationship that can be, yet in a world where many, sadly, prefer to thrive more on sensationalism than reason, the good work that is done by the majority of the industry participants in protecting animal rights is seldom acknowledged.

They say you can never change a person’s opinion with logic if that opinion had not been reached by logic in the first place. On that basis, it is clearly a pointless exercise trying to sway the view of some of the more radical animal activists ... so I won’t go there.

Where I will go is to offer praise to all of those thousands of racing participants who love their horses and threat them with dignity every day.

To all of you ... keep up the good work!