Today Australia celebrated and toasted that a woman for winning the Melbourne Cup like it was something that was such a remote possibility it was deemed amazing.
If we were a society that was truly about equality, it would make no difference the gender of the jockey.
Today the country is full of hypocrites, this morning saying that the sport of kings is a cruel sport and should be banned, but now Michelle Payne is a hero and it’s all wonderful, because it’s all about feminism suddenly.
I’m sorry, but I seem to have missed the part where this made the industry suddenly all about the animals welfare and not about greed and hidden cruelty.
Perhaps these people are trying to say that women are weaker than men and therefore whip the horse more gently? What a crock of shit. A cruel industry is still a cruel industry no matter who is holding the winners cup for one race. These commentators need to wake the fuck up and choose their role models just a little more carefully in my view.
An extension of this kind of bizarre mentality would be that if Eva Braun had ordered the extermination of Jews instead of Adolf Hitler we would see these people claiming it as a feminist victory, the world’s first female genocidal dictator, another barrier broken down.
Don’t stress, it’s not cruel, its rider was a woman…
Pic – horseracingkills.com
Anyway I don’t want to take anything away from Michelle Payne, the jockey with the apt surname, I have no doubt this is a big day for her, and the achievement of a lifetime.
As the airwaves buzzed, and the talk was all about the “first woman to win the Melbourne Cup”, I was left wondering “are we not forgetting something? Like maybe the horse?”
Perhaps again, we must give full credit to Michelle Payne, it cannot be easy running miles around a track, particularly dragging the weight of a horse between your legs as you run. Not only that, she had no free hands during her run, one had to hold reins and the other a whip.
However, It seems a little more likely to me that the honour for winning should be given where it’s due, the horse, Prince Of Penzance. After all it would seem to me that he was the one doing all the running. Not only that he had to contend with a jockey on his back whipping him, his vision impaired by blinkers so that he wouldn’t freak out at the sight of the other horses charging alongside.
I’m not saying there is no skill involved in being a jockey, but realistically if you’re not doing the running then you are a passenger, albeit one with a whip.
Michelle Payne – The new feminist hero from an inhumane industry
Image- News Ltd
Anyway once again the racing industry has done itself proud throwing a no expense spared party.
Tomorrow as the hangovers start to lift the daily routine of slaughtering racehorses that didn’t make the cut will continue.
Champagne for the industry and real pain for the horses it relies upon. It’s a shame they can’t spare a little of what they spent yesterday to end the slaughter.
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Interesting analogy there Wixxy and yes the cruelty aspects {whipping,over racing,doping] have to be addressed.
The feminism part because Payne is the first female jockey to win on a Mel Cup mount,I`d call call it gender mirth,but that`s only my opinion
Although I agree with the campaign to stop the cruelty to the horses in this “sport” – it must be said that this trainer is known for ensuring horses he has are treated humanely and are retired appropriately at the end of their lives. Baby steps are what will change this industry and horses being retired humanely is something we are wanting across the industry.
Also spare a thought for the horses that don’t get to race, the “wastage”of thousands of horses a year, bred for the industry but ending their short lives with a bullet in the knackers yard. I’m surprised the media has not yet mentioned what a wonderful thing the industry is doing for the disabled given that the strapper and brother, Steve, has Downs Syndrome.
I hope you are right Isabelle and if that’s the case I hope he uses the opportunity to highlight the issue while he is in the spotlight so that the steps get bigger and move faster
OTT, simplistic, and two totally different issues blended for effect. The Braun analogy is tastless and irrelevent. Hope you didn’t get paid for this tabloid junk.
Please do us a favour and shut up about all this “cruely”. You people know absolutly nothing about the sport or horses at all, other than what the media tells you. As someone who has lived and worked with 40+ horses my whole life, I can tell you it is absolute bullshit. If you think it is cruel for a midget to gallop a horse around a 3.2Km track, in a saddle that weighs 200g, your an idiot who doesn’t know what your talking about. The whips that are used are made so that you can hit yourself as hard as you can and it is just a little sting, it is not possible to hurt the horse with them. Also anther thing you don’t know, races have people around the track with bonoculars watching the jockeys, any rider whipping to hard or excessivly is penalised, if they kepp doing it they are disquaifed, and it is very difficult to hit a horse hard while galloping in that position. So please don’t comment or write stories about something that you have no idea about, simply seeing a picture of a horse on the news dosen’t make you an expert. One final though on this so called “slaughter”, which is once again, bullshit. Horses that are not good enough to race are not brutally and painfully tortured to death as people like you would like to think, most are sold off and bought by people in pony clubs who cannot handle them, and yes, some are sent to the doggers, where they are treated very well until they get put down, not hurt and tortured like you seem to think. So before you write an article bashing the sport, get out of your little inner-city unit and actually learn some facts, or get someone who knows what they are talking about to write it. As for the feminist part, I totally agree with you, it is ridiculous of how important it is whenever a woman does anything, treated as if she just flew to Mars and back. Feminisim itself is a bunch of hypocritical misandrists. I don’t see why she can’t be treated the same as other jockeys, being a woman shouldn’t impair your riding ability, or knowing the right people to be able to get a good horse, (It was a pathetically slow race as well, in other years she would have lost).
I guess we should only listen to what the “good” media tell us then?
The video footage must be fake? We are somehow suffering from a mass group hallucination when the green tarp is brought out as it was again yesterday. I guess also the 2 horses that died due to last years cup never existed.
As for the whips, I’m sure the restriction and when and how often it can be used is due to it tickling too much.
Your statements on the whip fly in the face of evidence and the views of the racing industry that eventually brought in restrictions
I have to keep it simplistic for readers like you
Don’t you think you are over-reacting just a little,Peter.Daniel Tanner is merely stating an opinion.I don’t agree with all of it,but he has made some good points.
I normally look forward to your articles,but this one is disappointing.
He said I was repeating “absolute bullshit” I disagreed and called him on it
I don’t think that’s harsh at all
Here’s a fair assessment of the situation –
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2015/nov/04/melbourne-cup-2015-a-heartwarming-rags-to-riches-rollicking-horsey-tale
Meanwhile the gambling industry rolls on, becoming an accepted part of every sporting (and other) event.
You people crapping on about how horse racing is so cruel has really got to me. Now, I know these people have ever seen a horse in real life, let alone had any experience with one, so I’ll try to make it simple. Owning a cat or dog doesn’t make you an animal expert. So, we all hear how making these horses gallop a short 3 Km stretch is so cruel and it is only for entertainment, blah blah blah. Here’s the truth, horses, unlike most people, actually want to run, not sit down on the internet complaining all day. Think of this way, if a 600 – 700 Kg horse really did not want to go into those barriers and run, which I see all the time, there is no way one or even a group of people are going to force it.
The link given above by Zathras features a cartoon portraying the reality most of you love to believe. Here’s the truth, everything presented there is utter crap. Firstly, the thing about thousands of horses being sent to the doggers every day is just garbage. Race horses especially are treated well, if they are not up to it they are sold off at sales, generally to people who want a horse for their kid or something, successful horses definitely are not dogged, so just stop with the crap. The funny thing is that if you got your way and these poor abused animals were saved from the horrible life of doing what they enjoy and there was no more racing, 99% of you would complain about that. If you think racing is bad, short distances run fast by Thoroughbreds, (horses who can only gallop for a few kilometers), I’ll bet you’ll love this other sport, wherein horses, Arabian horses, race over long distance, generally 120 or 160 Km. What are your thoughts on that? Should we save those horses who have been running long distance for thousands of years from that horrible life. Why don’t we be really nice and lock them in little boxes for their whole life, maybe they’ll develop the same attitude as the rest of you?
So grow a brain and stop thinking that every animal is the same as a person, bloody city idiots.
“Owning a dog or cat does not make you an animal expert”
Wow, what a revelation…. Clearly based on your moronic points owning a horse doesn’t either…
I said in my article that horses like to run, or is your memory span that short?
Horses don’t like being whipped, which is why the racing industry put restrictions on it.
You are right about one thing however, horses that don’t make the cut are sold. However they don’t end up in backyards like you seem to think, they are sold to pet food companies at auction for dog meat, just like the video shows in the article.
Anyway, I’m sure you’re right, horses love having their vision impaired so they can be led into a stall, and none of them ever freak out and refuse to enter, that never happens at all because they love it so much.
Even more than that they love to jump hurdles, the thrill of falling over and breaking limbs, the excitement of seeing the men come out with the green tarpaulin, the tickle as the bullet smashes through their skull. It’s every horses dream come true. The reason they banned it in so many countries and states is the horses enjoy it too much.
You are so clever, locking them in a box is exactly what we seek, we don’t want them in paddocks where they can run whenever they want.
Next time you sit down with your horse on the internet complaining on my site, let your horse do the thinking and just maybe we’ll get more sense out of you…
Oh, and by the way, those successful racehorses that are treated well and don’t get sent to the doggers….
Here’s one of them, Natures Child, a successful racehorse, living it up at the knackery…
http://www.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/stop-knackery-abuse/
What gets me is that her English is like that of a ten year old but still the femnazis throw her up on their shoulders.