The third day of the Cheltenham Festival was tainted by tragedy after a horse suffered a fatal injury in the final race.
Mindsmadeup, an 11-year-old bay gelding, fell at the second fence in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Chase. A second horse, Elegant Escape, also tumbled awkwardly.
A 40-1 outshot, Chambard, ridden by Lucy Turner, went on to win the race after holding off serious pressure from Mister Coffey in the closing stages. Didero Vallis, who led with three fences to go, was third.
But the result soon became overshadowed by concern, with screens having been put up during the race as the horses were attended to by veterinary staff. It was promptly confirmed that Elegant Escape had escaped major injury, but nearly three hours after the conclusion, the worst fears of Festival organisers were realised.
A spokesperson for Cheltenham Racecourse said: “Sadly Mindsmadeup sustained an injury in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Chase. He was immediately attended to by our highly experienced veterinary team, but after treatment it was determined that it was necessary to put the horse to sleep. Our thoughts are with his connections.”
After the opening race of the Festival on Tuesday, the Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle, Shallwehaveonemore died after being fatally injured from a fence fall.
On Thursday night, following the news Mindsmadeup had been put down, Chris Luffingham, director of external affairs at the League Against Cruel Sports, released a statement. The group are a leading animal welfare charity that 'works to stop animals being persecuted, abused and killed for sport.'
“The death of Mindsmadeup today at the Cheltenham Festival – the second death in only three days – is incredibly upsetting for everyone," he said. "But it is not an isolated incident. An astonishing 71 horses have now been killed racing at the Cheltenham Festival since 2000.
“For any horse to lose it’s life in the pursuit of a ‘sport’ is an unnecessary tragedy but this sickening death toll points to the need for new and much tighter safety measures to be implemented – we are calling for an independent regulatory body to be created with horse welfare as its only concern. We will also be calling for the ban on the whip which forces horses to go beyond what they are comfortably able to do resulting in deaths, injuries and stress.”
One horse (Kings Temptation) was put down at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival from a total of 402 runners over the four days (0.25%). In 2020 one horse from a total of 462 runners was lost over the four days. Independent research by the Centre for Equine Studies at Liverpool University found horses are nearly five times more likely to sustain serious injury when in a field at home rather than during ridden exercise (i.e. training or racing). The British Horseracing Authority (governing body) inspects the course and confirms it fit to race to ensure that the required very high standards are reached.
In the last 20 years a constant commitment and investment in minimising avoidable risk has seen the number of horses sustaining fatal injuries on racecourses decrease by a third, to 0.2% of runners annually. This means that 99.8% of racehorses complete their races without serious injury, an improvement from 99.7% in 2006.
The news of Mindsmadeup tainted what had been a memorable day at the Festival, with Flooring Porter stealing the show with a superb display to retain the Stayers' Hurdle.
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