We always believed Cheltenham Festival put profit before safety. Now we’re seeing the true moral consequences

Perhaps the controversy this year will continue long enough for people to also understand that horses’ lives are routinely risked on British courses?

For years, animal rights campaigners have tried to show how horses suffer in the racing industry. We’ve revealed how many die on British courses – 2,045 in the past 13 years. We’ve argued that greedy industry bosses prioritise profit over safety.

Now, the row over this year’s Cheltenham Festival is making more people see the moral consequences of putting profits first. Health experts are calling for an investigation into whether the controversial decision to allow Cheltenham to go ahead in early March led to a local spike in coronavirus cases.

Data compiled by the Health Service Journal shows that Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS trust, which covers Cheltenham, has recorded 125 deaths, around double that in nearby trusts at Bristol (58 each), Swindon (67) and Bath (46).

Several famous people who attended Cheltenham this year subsequently fell ill with coronavirus symptoms, including Andrew Parker Bowles, former husband of the Duchess of Cornwall, the footballer Charlie Austin and the stand-up comedian Lee Mack.

A number of others who had attended revealed on social media in the following week that they were getting Covid-19 symptoms. David Hodgkiss, the 71-year-old chairman of Lancashire county cricket club who was at Cheltenham, died of the disease in early April.

In total, 250,000 people attended the four-day event, so the potential spread of the virus afterwards could be colossal. Speaking on Good Morning Britain this week, Dr Hilary Jones said Cheltenham was a “disaster waiting to happen” this year. He added: “So many people would have become infected.”

Apologists for the decision to go ahead with the festival say there was no government advice to cancel it.

But even before the festival went ahead, the government was being accused of “complacency” and “playing roulette” with people’s lives. And it’s worth noting that Tory MPs were given £2,400 of Cheltenham Festival freebies days before the event.

Perhaps the Cheltenham controversy this year will continue long enough for people to also understand that horses’ lives are routinely risked on British courses?

The industry trots out the spin that the racing community treats horses better than they treat their own families but 2,045 deaths in 13 years tells the true story. Horses are whipped and forced to jump dangerous obstacles. They shatter their ankles and break their necks.

When they become too old or exhausted to generate profits, some horses are allowed a happy retirement but for many, their sad lives end in the slaughterhouse with a bullet through the temple or a metal bolt fired into the brain. Others are taken to laboratories to be experimented upon.

Cheltenham chief Ian Renton said the racing at the festival this year was “fantastic” but it certainly wasn’t for Copper Gone West, a seven-year-old mare, who died on day three. She was the 68^th horse to die at Cheltenham since 2000.

It doesn’t take a doctor or government adviser to join the dots here: I honestly believe that those who are willing to risk the lives of animals for profit may also be prepared to endanger your life, if the price is right.