Newbury Drama

Horrific scenes from Newbury yesterday as two horses, Fenix Two and Marching Song, unfortunately died in the paddock prior to the opening race. Speculation has it that they may have suffered an electric shock, an underground cable has reportedly been found, though investigations are on-going. A third horse, Kid Cassidy, collapsed but thankfully recovered. The horses were being mounted in the parade ring when they fell to the ground and died. Thoughts are naturally with connections at this terribly sad time.
BHA Chief Exec Nic Coward is quoted as saying 'This was a tragic incident and our thoughts have to be with the connections. Once the incident had taken place racecourse officials got together with trainers, jockeys and owners and I think in difficult and freakish circumstances, they had some difficult decisions to make and made the right ones. Obviously Newbury are still in close contact with investigators they have there carrying out inspections, trying to work out what really happened. It is premature to describe in detail what happened because that would be speculation, but fingers are being pointed at some kind of electrical fault. Post-mortems are also being carried out. I think we should stress that racecourses have a very strong track record of dealing with all of these issues at the track in the interest of welfare - the horse, the jockey, trainers, owners and the customer. Racecourses are doing all they can and at the moment I think we should look at this as a bizarre moment that people who have been around racing for decades and decades have never seen the like. Courses are very vigilant and owners and trainers are very vigilant always. People across the country have seen this happen and their feelings will be for the connections of the horses."