Mrs Elizabeth Windsor/Sax-Coburg, better known as the Queen, is Patron to the Royal Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, also better known as the RSPCA. The “Royal” part of the charity, of course, shows the firm link between the charity and the Queen but the aims of the charity conflict with the powerful Royal support for horse racing.

Investigator, Kareena Grey, has managed to infiltrate and research deaths in racehorses and has come up with astounding information of a downward spiral of cruelty. Of course the racing world is powerful, has rich pickings and will close ranks to cover up anything that threatens their massive profits to be made.

Kareena has found that experiments on mares include the inducement of foals in order to discover how quickly a mare could breed over the years. Obviously the foals were often too early and were only watched as they died over hours or days. Other mares having two successive failed foals are usually put down. The whole breeding programme prioritises speed. The weight of a racehorse is one factor that breeders are endeavouring to reduce because a lighter horse with less weight to carry runs faster. Leg bones are heavy and over years the breeder is able to reduce the thickness of leg bones making them both lighter but more fragile. Yes, the legs are more likely to break and, as you know, almost every horse with a broken leg is killed. This is especially found in jump racing where the tremendous impact of a horse landing causes fractures in the thinner bones and where also in the case of two year old runners, with undeveloped bones there is micro-crushing injuries that lead to weak bones tending to breakage. Six out of every ten jumpers will be unsound at some point during every season. New South Wales banned jump racing in 1998. Stomach ulcers are more prevalent in racehorses fed on a diet based on unnatural more acidic cereals. The natural fresh grass diet is almost a rarity for racehorses that spend much of their time stabled. The heart and lungs are particularly strained excessively and heart attacks and bursting of blood capillaries in the lungs are not uncommon. Between June 2000 and March 2001 more than 1,565 racehorse were reported dead and of the 851 that Kareena traced 120 had just raced.

In a letter to Kareena the RSPCA said they would not campaign against horse racing. Another charity worker, Andrew Tyler, said, “The RSPCA does indeed frustrate and dismay us on this issue and we have publicly tackled them on their tacit support for the Grand National. We have asked them to prosecute the Aintree organisers under the 1911 Protection of Animals Act rather than getting into bed with them.”

This is a very brief extract of Kareena’s research and further details can be obtained from her in the afternoons on 07814 925473.