News
A Day At The Races - YORK Racecourse September 4th 2005
Written by 'Murphy’s Victims' – Syndicate owners of Style Princess from 2004-2005
Having never owned a racehorse before, you can imagine how excited and proud we all were on seeing our filly “Style Princess” saddled and ready for racing at York on Sunday. As the jockey mounted everything seemed so right, all the time effort and attention that had been given to her now seemed all worthwhile. It was our first venture as owners and the filly’s first ever race. Style Princess was purchased from Tattersalls Fairyhouse yearling sales on our behalf by our trainer Declan Carroll. Our journey on the train to York Races was filled with excited talk of her prospects, of the many years of fun we had ahead of us, talk of how we were looking forward to her listed race at Redcar and of future races at tracks we had yet to visit. We had all dreamt of owning a race horse, now we at last were living that dream.
We watched as she strode towards the starting line, every inch a racehorse.
5:02pm September 4 2005- The DRS for Sony Maiden Auction Stakes was away, she was last out but within moments showing her drive and future potential, was up with the leaders. Fourth, third, second. How we roared, jumping in anticipation of a well earned place at the finish. She tired at the last furlong but we didn’t care she had done us proud.
5:05pm September 4 2005- “Style Princess” is dead!
We arrived with anticipation at York Racecourse with a race horse and were leaving the course with nothing!
There were many frantic calls back home to the other syndicate members, to our families and friends and all the children huddled around the televisions, everyone felt the same pride and each telephone call answered was another person excited at just how well she had run. Each needed to be told the truth. No one believed us, “Style Princess”, our filly had been put down at the finish line in front of a 22,000 family crowd watched by potentially millions of people on TV and yet no-one knew.
We spent the next 2 hours in shock and disbelief, full grown men fighting back tears and losing the battle at the images of her passed the finish line trying to stand on her broken leg, the jockey and stable hand helpless to do anything except try to lift her leg to take away any weight and ease her pain. That ease came swiftly as the vet now in attendance was pulling the top off a syringe in readiness for the horses’ demise. In seconds the screens were around her and all that was evident was the sound of a motorized winch attached to a horse trailer. That was it, the end for us.
No single person other than those directly involved with either the owning, training or day to day care, even blinked. We were not spoken to by anyone. No sympathetic ears from the racecourse management or staff no mention of her gallant efforts, nothing on television. Had she existed at all?
That was our day, but there was so much more to it than we had known, there were complaints from jockeys and trainers alike regarding the course as to the state of the track and those concerns even prompted the possibility of abandoning races as was reported live on television.
In the race before, jockey Paul Hanagan was riding Doric. Some twenty yards before the line the horse stumbled and on completion of the race Paul Hanagan a senior jockey complained to the stewards of holes in the ground a short distance from the finish line. That complaint among others prompted the stewards to investigate and on television you see a half hearted attempt to fill some number of evident holes by two gentlemen and a lady obviously not dressed to fulfill the roll of grounds men. On completion the television commentator reports that the decision is made that racing will continue.
We knew nothing of this track inspection at the course prior to our race and only learnt the facts through conversations from people on the telephone watching at home and on our return, the painful reruns on our video player.
“Style princess” comes through on exactly the same line as Doric and in exactly the same place in distance from the rails and finish line, puts her foot in a hole and can be seen clearly on video to veer sharply to her right, her leg broken.. The hole clearly visible in her wake.
We feel so aggrieved and so angry that this matter has past with no recognition from any racecourse officials as to the events that led up to this tragedy that were so easily avoidable had we known of the concerns regarding the conditions of the track. Some of our syndicate inspected the course after the meeting and was astonished to see that the track consisted of loose turfs sited on firm dry subsoil and indeed could have simply rolled up the majority of the area between the one furlong marker and the finish line.
Were we just expected to shrug it off and go home lick our wounds and ready ourselves for work the next day as if nothing had happened, because that’s how it felt. To this day we still have heard nothing from anyone about the sad loss of our filly “Style Princess”. Is this the face of British racing that we should become used to as owners of racehorses, is this what we should expect from the upper management of our race tracks?
Is this what people should expect when venturing into racehorse ownership?