The Cheltenham Festival

At the root of the problem is racing’s regulator, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). It is responsible for race horse welfare but has failed to curb the number of fatalities in racing. In 2018, the BHA announced that it would undertake a review of the deaths at the Festival that year. It took the BHA nine months to produce the report, and many of the recommendations fell well short of what is needed, and, above all, failed to address key issues such as the ‘win at all costs’ mentality of many jockeys at the event, the number of demanding obstacles to be jumped and the gruelling length of some races.

In 2018, Animal Aid secured a Parliamentary debate on race horse welfare. The debate came about as the result of more than 105,000 compassionate people signing a government petition calling for the British Horseracing Authority to be stripped of its responsibility for race horse welfare, and instead for that vital job to be awarded to an independent body of professionals who would hold the industry to account over the shocking rate of race horse deaths and injuries. We continue to campaign for this goal.

Notes for Editors:

• Read our Cheltenham Facts and Figures Briefing
• See a list of all horses who have died at the festival since 2000
• Read our critique of the BHA’s 2018 Review
• Races at Cheltenham have consistently seen jockeys beat their horses with their whips in a mindset of ‘win at all costs’. A public opinion poll in 2018 found that 68% of respondents oppose the use of the whip in racing. When only including those who expressed a view, this figure rose to 83%. Animal Aid is campaigning to secure a ban on the whip for the use of ‘encouragement’ or any similar term, so that it may be carried for safety purposes only.