Who owns big fella thanks

While Animal Aid would prefer an end to all horse racing, Stansall said that on a pragmatic basis it would like to see changes introduced for the benefit of runners and he asserts that older horses are more vulnerable to injury. Big Fella Thanks was half of that again.

You could look at the length and type of race the older horses could take part in. It is understood that connections of Big Fella Thanks view his injury as a freak accident which could have occurred to a horse of any age, like the six-year-old Fayonagh who broke a leg while cantering at her home in Ireland last week.

They believe Big Fella Thanks was in peak condition, having been third of 28 in the Aintree Foxhunters in April, when he was the oldest runner by three years, and they deny that his death has any welfare implication. The BHA said it was prepared to listen if anyone can supply evidence that advancing age puts horses at increased risk.

The fatality rate within British racing has reduced by a third in the last 20 years, down to just below 0. This applies to any activity involving horses, whether they are turned out in a field, exercising at home or doing what they are bred to do: race.

Should data arise which indicates that horses with certain characteristics - such as age - are more at risk than others, then we would consider whether any action is necessary to protect those horses. The welfare of our participants must come first at all times. He fractured a foreleg cannon bone at the notorious Cheltenham racecourse.

Big Fella Thanks was one of the big names in National Hunt jump racing over the past decade. He had contested the most demanding races, often carrying huge weights in the most testing of ground conditions.

Yet, he always gave his all, finishing in one of the top three places in over half of his 41 races whilst never finishing out of the first two in his five point-to-point races.

Arguably, an unmatched record of achievement. Surprisingly, his death has gone unreported in the racing press with no well- deserved obituary. This is presumably due to silence from his connections and embarrassment from an industry that allowed this old stager to continue racing until, eventually, he was fatally injured. The reality was that this old boy was exploited, had his life cut short, and most likely died in pain.

The fact that this has been kept almost secret suggests a guilty conscience by those connected with him and the racing industry as a whole. Shame on them all. We need , signatures on our petition by midnight on 17 November in order to trigger a parliamentary debate on horse slaughter, and force the government to take action on the root of the problem. By the end of the month on the 30 May, Big Fella Thanks was officially reported as dead.

He was a superb jumper and fell only once.