“We’re very concerned about the injured horses yesterday.
Our thoughts are with the people caring for these horses and the veterinarians, and we hope for the best outcome.
We obviously expect the industry to make sure there’s a thorough investigation into what led up to this and what could be done to prevent it happening in future.
It does highlight that injuries are a real risk in horse racing.
The most common injuries that you’re going to see are musculoskeletal, but you can also get heart failure as well as exercise induced pulmonary haemorrhages, which is where the horses bleed from the lungs.
These injuries can all lead to fatal consequences, and it really highlights the risk associated with racing, why more needs to be done to prevent them, and the requirement for adequate reporting so that we understand what’s going on and where effort needs to be made to reduce them.”
RSPCA Australia’s policy for Horse Racing can be found here.
