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A jockey has been given a 50-day ban after failing to pull up an injured horse in a race at Galway Racecourse on Sunday (6 August 2023).
The 9-year-old horse named Sole Pretender suffered a fatal injury and was killed. According to a Racing Post report, he was "put down shortly after passing the winning post having suffered a fracture below his fetlock joint".
The Irish Racing website quoted extracts from an Irish Horse Racing Regulatory Board report - "The Raceday Stewards interviewed R.P. [Robbie] Geoghegan, rider of Sole Pretender who sustained an injury before the turn for home. Evidence was heard from the rider concerned who stated that he felt his mount was not moving correctly at the time but was unaware the injury was as serious as it turned out to be. Having considered the evidence, the Raceday Stewards were satisfied that R.P. Geoghegan was in breach of Rule 216(ii)(a) and Rule 216(iii) by failing to pull up and dismount a lame or injured horse as soon as reasonably possible to do so."
https://www.irishracing.com/news/Geoghegan-receives-50-day-ban-at-Galway/241502
Sickening video footage of the race shows horses being whipped towards the finish line, with the doomed horse Sole Pretender at the back https://youtu.be/pywQHoKD0bM?t=157
A "Jockey Suspensions" page on the IHRB website shows that although the ban is reportedly 50 days in duration, only 21 race dates are currently listed - August 20, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29 and September 1, 8, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30 https://www.ihrb.ie/pdf.php?f=JockeySuspensions.pdf
Race records for Sole Pretender reveal that in a Guinness-sponsored race at the 2022 Galway Races Summer Festival at Galway Racecourse (28 July 2022), he weakened and burst a blood vessel.
Two weeks before he was killed, he finished first in a BoyleSports-sponsored race at Killarney Racecourse (21 July 2023) but was "reluctant to line up" before the start.
Earlier in July at Tipperary Racecourse, he "refused to race". In a previous race at Cork Racecourse on 9 April 2023, he was "reluctant to line up".
Sole Pretender is the latest in an ever-growing list of racing victims.
Over 1,000 horses have been killed at racecourses around Ireland in the past decade, including 107 last year. Figures obtained by Paul Murphy TD show that from 2012 to the end of 2022, 1,060 horses have lost their lives at racecourses. Horse Racing Ireland – which has received more than €1.3 billion in government grants to-date – previously revealed the method of killing to be either lethal injection or a bullet in the head.
The death figures do not include the horses injured at racecourses, taken away and later killed elsewhere or the horses killed behind the scenes because they are not fast enough to win races.
Many more race horses are also killed in slaughterhouses. Between 2016 and March 2023, 14,474 thoroughbred horses were slaughtered at “Department-approved slaughter facilities” in Ireland.
Thousands of others have been exported to the UK for slaughter – as revealed in the disturbing BBC documentary “The Dark Side of Horse Racing” which showed horses being shot in the head https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlpQhJFd5Bo
ACTION ALERT
Download and distribute the leaflet - Why you should say NO to horse racing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l1XkiyTTlyJTmbWi937YMU9YyRLZhNqT
Help end the cruelty and killing – stay away from racecourses and never bet on horse racing
Urge Guinness to stop sponsoring horse racing.
Email: customer.service@diageo.com
Demand an end to the government’s massive grants to horse and greyhound racing – more than a €1.6 Billion handed over since 2001, including €91 million for 2023. Contact the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Finance Minister now.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD
Telephone: +353 (0)1-704 3630 OR +353 (0)1-640 3133
Email: leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: http://www.twitter.com/@LeoVaradkar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar
Tanaiste Micheál Martin TD
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; info@fiannafail.ie
Phone: +353 (0)1–618 4350 or +353 (0)21-432 0088
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@MichealMartinTD
Michael McGrath TD
Minister for Finance
Email: michael.mcgrath@oireachtas.ie; minister@per.gov.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/michael.mcgrath.1614
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mmcgrathtd
Watch the BBC Panorama documentary “The Dark Side of Horse Racing”
https://youtu.be/VlpQhJFd5Bo
Find out more about race horse deaths at
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2021/08/19/horses-confirmed-dead-following-races-at-irish-racecourses/