As thousands of people around Australia drank champagne to celebrate Fiorente’s Melbourne Cup victory, a champion mare lay on the ground with a shattered leg, about to be put to sleep.
Verema, who dropped out of the great race in distress at about the halfway mark, is said to have snapped her cannon bone, a large bone in its lower leg, and Victoria Racing Club stewards confirmed that the horse was euthanised after the race.
For long-time followers of racing, the incident has echoes of the aftermath of the 1979 Melbourne Cup when race favourite and cult hero Dulcify was euthanised after fracturing its pelvis.
For younger, recent racing fans and once-a-year-punters, the Verema tragedy is a distressing reminder of the fact that racing is a dangerous sport for both humans and equine participants.
Some have taken to Twitter to express sadness about the loss of a horse’s life.
Melbourne Cup broadcaster Channel Seven also attracted some criticism on social media yesterday afternoon, with many people saying they didn’t so much as mention the incident.
The Australian Racing Factbook, an annual publication produced by the Australian Racing Board, says that there are almost 20,000 races in Australia each year, contested by about 30,000 horses. The Factbook makes no mention of the number of fatalities.
News.com.au contacted the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses to find out how many horses die in races in Australia each year. They weren’t able to answer that question but issued a statement which in part read:
“It is a sad day for racing when a horse is killed in the most competitive race of the country. It shows that sometimes these horses are pushed beyond their physical limits, and it is a high price to pay.
“We would like to ask that the racing industry announce the news to all at Flemington, and hold a minute’s silence in memory of the fallen horse, Verema.”
Verema was trained by Alain De Royer-Dupre, the French trainer who brought Americain on a successful Melbourne Cup raid in 2010. The five-year-old mare’s last run was in the Dubai Gold Cup, in which it finished third.
Jockey Christophe Lemaire is believed to be unhurt.
Source: News Ltd