AN ANIMAL rights group has raised concerns after three racehorses died within an hour of each other at a North Yorkshire racetrack.
The horses died while racing at Catterick Racecourse on Tuesday. Irish-owned runner Soft Spoken Guy collapsed and died of a heart attack after finishing the 4.20 hurdle race, while eight-year-old gelding Stop On suffered a broken front leg.
About half-an-hour later, County Durham-owned No Way Hozay broke a hind leg and had to be destroyed. Dene Stansall, horse-racing consultant for Animal Aid, which is campaigning to ban the Grand National, said: “In the past, Catterick has been pretty good, and in 2012 they only had two horses die there. But here we have three horses die in one day. That does ring alarm bells.”
The British Horseracing Authority said it was rare for more than one horse to die in one day. A spokesman said: “It is typical of Animal Aid, an animal rights campaigning group whose stated aim is to ban horse-racing, to attempt to cynically use the sad fatalities of three horses to raise their public profile on a day when those connected with the horses will be grieving their loss.”
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