There are so many things that make the Melbourne cup cruel, Why is the Melbourne Cup so bad? starting with this. Seven horse Animal rights activists say death highlights 'abusive' racing industry. The Australian Greens animal welfare spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi said Anthony Van Dyck's death was a "tragic but hardly unforeseeable outcome". "Seven horses have now died as a result of the last eight Melbourne Cup races," they whip the horses and you may think,  so it doesn't hurt them? There is no evidence to suggest that whipping does not hurt. Whips can cause bruising and inflammation, however, horses do have resilient skin and whipping the horse makes them think that something is chasing them so it it scares them. What they don't want you to know  about the Melbourne cup Horses die on racetracks all the time. During the last racing year, 116 of them died on Australian racetracks. Their deaths were traumatic and frightening, a stomach-churning mess of tangled limbs, fractured bones, and broken spines. It’s common for horses to bleed from the lungs.The blood that pours from their nostrils is caused by a condition called “exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhaging” or, in other words, bleeding from the capillaries of the lungs. Researchers at the University of Melbournediscovered that more than half of the horses used for racing they studied had blood in their windpipes. This condition isn’t normal. It’s a sign that the animals are being run too hard, beyond what their bodies can withstand. Horses suffer from stomach ulcers. Studies conducted in both Sydney and the US have found that more than 85 per cent of Thoroughbreds used for racing had lesions in their stomach lining.