Cheltenham Festival; why horse racing in dock over trainer Gordon Elliott’s shameful photo – Yorkshire Post Letters

I FIND it difficult to express my shock and sadness at recent revelations from the world of horse racing.

First we have the image of well-known trainer Gordon Elliott sitting on a dead horse and being banned for six months.

Now a picture of jockey Rob James, pretending to ride a dead horse, has emerged. He has also been banned.

As a horse lover, I have always been opposed to horse racing on welfare grounds. More recently I have had contact with a caring training establishment which 
had softened my opinion somewhat. Now I think that my instincts were right all along. There are too many people involved in racing who see horses as money making machines, not the beautiful, sentient beings they are.

From: Thomas Reed, Harrogate.

BRITAIN has always prided itself on being a nation of animal lovers.

Why, therefore, is the British Horseracing Authority 
allowing horses of the disgraced Gordon Elliott, now trained by Denise Foster, to run at Cheltenham this week and then the Grand National?

It sends out totally the wrong message.