The Dark Side of Horse Racing

[Trader Pat]

Politicians are dressed up in suits , but politics is a dirty game .
I sense a political hatch act . The exchanges are in bed with bookies , and they are now setting up thier headquarters in places favourable to thier bottom line ( tax avoidance )… this is not always welcome news to politicians who use thier power of mass influence to blackmail the big boys of the betting industry . Most politicians receive a certain kind of kick back inform of a campaign donation just to keep thier mouth piece ( bbc) quiet.
RSPCA has always done the leg work of animal cruelty and I find them more genuine and less antagonistic .we all want to see the bad apples of the horse racing industry down the drains.

As I've said I don't care who made the doc but the fact it was the BBC's flagship current affairs programme can only be a good thing because it will reach a much bigger audience and will spark more of a discussion.

You seem to have a problem with the programme because of who it was made by rather than the content. Unless you doubt the claims made?

[decomez6]

As I've said I don't care who made the doc but the fact it was the BBC's flagship current affairs programme can only be a good thing because it will reach a much bigger audience and will spark more of a discussion.

You seem to have a problem with the programme because of who it was made by rather than the content. Unless you doubt the claims made?

The subject matter is not in dispute . It’s the double standards portrayed by BBC and the politicisation of the problem.
The timing is suspect and you can go back to many videos on youtube and articles on the subject matter . How is it that BBC want to claim the moral high ground, when they closed the lid on the same can of worms when it was in their hands .
‘ don’t bite the arm that feed you ‘ … if it is bad now , it must be worst then.
Now they are not getting revenue from the racing industry , they collude with politicians who are threatening them with legislation to abolish the tv license. Just to land a punch ‘ black eye’ on the bookies and exchanges who have found a way of not coughing up the big campaign donations. After all the bookies have kept their earnings in safe havens where the politicians will not necessarily use it to arm-twist them .
We both agree cruelty to animals is bad

[Derek27]

Two things that have come out of the documentary; horses are seeing another horse get shot before meeting with the same fate, and horses with severe leg injuries are being transported in horse boxes.

One irony is, if I pay a tradesman to dispose of waste and he decides to dump it in a field, I'm held legally responsible for it. But owners can hand their horses to animal abusers and simply wash their hands.of all responsibility.

[greenmark]

Just watched it on iplayer.
Yes, I agree, a hard watch.
i don't think we can conflate the atrocious behaviour of the few with the majority.
Thats perhaps where Panorama are falling short of their high standards.
This seemed like cherry-picking horrendous events without stating the wider picture.

But hopefully it's a poke in the ribs of the racing industry.
Pay attention and sort it out or punters will walk away.

[Nathane30]

From my perspective, it was more the dark side of the abattoir rather than of horse racing.

[andy28]

Clicked on link told me I couldn't watch it as I was outside the UK. But I can guess what it will be about. It is the 1 percenters that cause all the problems everywhere you go. 1% of people are cruel to pets, 1%of farmers are cruel to their livestock, 1% of sports people will take drugs (more in certain countries) the list goes on so why would racing be different. These people should be weeded out named and shamed and the given lengthy prison sentences.

As a Racehorse owner in NZ we have a duty of care for the horse after it finishes racing, if I sell to a dodgey person who mistreats it then I can be prosecuted if the horse is mistreated. So if you sell it to a person with a history of abuse then you will get in a lot of trouble and also you may be told you can't own another horse. Most of mine I give to kids that are into show jumping and have out grown their pony and are wanting to take show jumping further with a real horse. I still get photos of these horses and are not only a show jumper but a family pet.

Horse welfare is very important there is no place for these people in the sport.

[Derek27]

From my perspective, it was more the dark side of the abattoir rather than of horse racing.

Mine too, but I'm more shocked that a sport I loved for most of my life don't appear to have many checks and controls on what happens to retired horses. But I can't see why the BBC are so focused on horse racing and not the abattoirs, which must be butchering many other horses inhumainly.

[Lutruwita]

Wish we could watch BBC documentaries in Australia.

[Trader Pat]

Wish we could watch BBC documentaries in Australia.

VPN's are very cheap, you could even download a free trial and you can watch BBC iPlayer

[Realrocknrolla]

Wish we could watch BBC documentaries in Australia.

Ipvanish

[firlandsfarm]

I've not watched the prog. but from most of your comments it appears to follow the usual trail of sensationalist journalism ... find a bad apple and present it as if all the apples from that farmer are bad. It's not just the BBC, it's the whole media. I'm a landlord and I get very pissed off every time I hear of a 'dodgy landlord' story or article but never stories or articles of dodgy tenants! But what do you expect from the LL driven BBC? Horse owners are rich and therefore must be bad people, just like landlords!

[to75ne]

I've not watched the prog. but from most of your comments it appears to follow the usual trail of sensationalist journalism ... find a bad apple and present it as if all the apples from that farmer are bad. It's not just the BBC, it's the whole media. I'm a landlord and I get very pissed off every time I hear of a 'dodgy landlord' story or article but never stories or articles of dodgy tenants! But what do you expect from the LL driven BBC? Horse owners are rich and therefore must be bad people, just like landlords!

all true but a story about a decent trainer/owner or indeed landlord will not attract many viewers. people seem to like the dark, dirty, dishonest side of life.

[Trader Pat]

I've not watched the prog. but from most of your comments it appears to follow the usual trail of sensationalist journalism ... find a bad apple and present it as if all the apples from that farmer are bad. It's not just the BBC, it's the whole media. I'm a landlord and I get very pissed off every time I hear of a 'dodgy landlord' story or article but never stories or articles of dodgy tenants! But what do you expect from the LL driven BBC? Horse owners are rich and therefore must be bad people, just like landlords!

Its a shame so many people posting to the thread start off by saying "I didn't watch the programme but....." and then proceed to grind whatever axe is nearest to hand.

Maybe watch the programme then give an opinion on it rather than dismissing the message because of the messenger. Not everything needs to be a political conservation.

[decomez6]

BBC is ‘getting things done ‘
The consequences of Brexit are to be felt on the very 1st day of pandemic’ freedom day .
Now BBC has gone into the archives and found some low hanging fruits just to remain relevant .
Highlight the weakness of an industry that the population love to hate , sensationalise and politicise animal cruelty to win some brownie points . This will surely buy them some re -organisational time before the axe fall on the countless companies relocating outside the uk to remain in the eu …. Paddy/ betfair from Gibraltar to Malta.
Why not cover those stories and ithe incompetences portrayed by some government institutions .
Let sir Attenborough and RSPCA run animal cruelty awareness campaigns while BBC focuses on real problems of the pandemonial corona brexit.

[Trader Pat]

I rest my case