Saturday, February 12, 2011

Electrocution Suspected As 2 Horses Die Before Race

NEWBURY, England (AP) -Two horses collapsed and died in the parade ring at Newbury Racecourse on Saturday amid fears they were electrocuted.
The reasons for the deaths of Fenix Two and Marching Song before the first race were not immediately announced by officials at the southern England course.
But Andy Turnell, trainer of Marching Song, said: "It looks like they've been electrocuted."
Marching Song's part owner Graham Thorner added: "Three people said they were getting a shock off the horse. My fellow (Marching Song) seemed perfectly all right and I was about to leg him up but he just went straight down."
The race went ahead after a 20-minute delay but officials then canceled the day's remaining races for safety reasons.
Jonjo O'Neill, trainer of Fenix Two, said he noticed the horse in front of his, Kid Cassidy, go down on his knees before his horse was struck.
"Mine reared up and we couldn't get him back, it was like he was stuck to the ground," O'Neill said. "It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life."
Other people reported they were getting shocks from the grass.
"It's a nightmare for everybody. We can't be certain what it is, we all think it's electric, but we don't know," Newbury chairman Christopher Spence said. "We've looked at the cables and we couldn't see any damage and no work has been carried out on the paddock since the last meeting."
There were claims that a lead rein on one of the dead horses looked burned.
"One of the reasons we couldn't continue was because of all the speculation," stipendiary steward Paul Barton said. "The lead rein could have snapped if it was stood on by another horse when it was on the ground. The rein will go away for forensic examination to establish what happened to it."
© 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

No comments:

Post a Comment