Former jockey Davy Russell has highlighted that Ireland's small horse racing industry has “shrunk a lot”.
Writing in the Racing Post on 6 August 2024, he observed: “When an industry is as small as ours – and it has already shrunk a lot – we simply don't have the scope for it to continue contracting.”
Davy Russell is the individual who was caught on video in 2017 punching a horse in the neck https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/racing/davy-russell-gets-four-day-ban-for-striking-a-horse-1.3210076
See the sickening video footage at https://twitter.com/banbloodsports/status/1366867044981964804?t=ODt3Dm6jR1BAd9OSOMyKAg&s=19
Russell admitted at a Turf Club hearing that he had hit the horse, named Kings Dolly. The panel’s report said he "used his fist to hit the horse on the soft part of her neck, just behind the head, to make the horse concentrate" and added: "He had his stick in his hand when he did this. He said he would have slapped the horse if he hadn’t had the stick in his hand. He accepted his actions were inappropriate.”
Russell told At The Races: "Obviously, visually it doesn't look good. There were a number of different things going through my head at the time to bring the filly under control, because at that stage she was out of control. I felt that if I was to continue in that vein during the race I would have had a very difficult time trying to control her during the race. I felt I needed to do something to let her know there was somebody on her back. Just to slap her to the soft of the neck I felt was the appropriate action. A slap on the neck is what she wanted to get her to pay attention."
Previously, Russell received a 14 day ban after he abused stewards at Clonmel racecourse in 2016, after he was found to have struck the runner-up horse Solar-Heat three times with his whip in the closing stages of the race. He had won the race on Little Folke, but this was reversed because of his actions.
During an appearance on the Late Late Show in 2018, Davy Russell told then presenter Ryan Tubridy that his "attitude wouldn't be brilliant" in relation to losing a race, and that he "could take it out on the dog, now, fairly quick", further going on to admit that he "might not even be nice to the girl leading up the horse" https://www.facebook.com/463547953760768/posts/1659253437523541/
ACTION ALERT
There would be a lot more shrinkage if the government stopped propping up horse racing with vast sums of Irish taxpayers' money. Since 2001, €1.38 billion of scarce public funds has been handed over to Horse Racing Ireland.
Contact the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and Finance Minister and demand an end to state funding to this gambling activity which causes so much suffering and death. Tell them to redirect the funds to the many deserving charities, health/homeless/environmental groups, sports clubs, animal rescue centres, etc crying out for funding.
Taoiseach Simon Harris TD
Email: simon.harris@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Telephone: +353 (0)1 618 3805 or +353 (0)1 889 2442
X: http://www.twitter.com/SimonHarrisTD
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DeputySimonHarris
Tanaiste Micheál Martin
Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie; 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
Irish Government grants to horse racing
2001 €47,110,330
2002 €54,452,651
2003 €51,348,800
2004 €53,531,200
2005 €54,680,000
2006 €56,047,000
2007 €58,539,000
2008 €61,028,800
2009 €54,502,000
2010 €47,411,200
2011 €45,830,000
2012 €45,032,000
2013 €44,016,000
2014 €43,376,000
2015 €54,400,000
2016 €59,200,000
2017 €64,000,000
2018 €64,000,000
2019 €67,200,000
2020 €67,200,000
2021 €76,800,000
2022 €70,400,000
2023 €72,800,000
2024 €76,000,000
TOTAL: €1,388,904,981
(€1.38 Billion)
Thoroughbred horses slaughtered in Ireland
2023: 1,428
2022: 1,050
2021: 1,105
2020: 1,549
2019: 2,218
2018: 2,526
2017: 2,829
2016: 2,952