Racing to Their Deaths. As Melbourne Cup approaches

As Melbourne Cup approaches - “the race that stops a nation” - punters get ready to place bets and try their luck, whilst men and women from all over the country, as well as families and work colleagues, doll themselves up to the nines in order to participate in one glorious day of frivolity.

For centuries horse racings has been considered “the sport of kings”, and the environment produced by the industry today aims to build upon that image. It encourages people from all walks of life to forget their reality and play pretend, living in a world of luxury and extravagance for the duration of the races, gambling money they may not have to spend, relishing in the adrenaline of the danger of loss and the exhilaration of  a possible win. However, behind this facade of golden rain, perfect pouts and streaming springtime sunshine there lies a darker, more malicious reality to this most prestigious of days. Incessant, painful whipping.

Performance enhancing drugs. Hormone supplements. Erratic beats of enormous heart chambers. 1,800 litres of air breathed in and exhaled of lungs the size of a child's head. Creatures collapsing mid-stride from exhaustion. Small, thin legs snapping in two under weight under enormous force. A mysterious screen erected by officials followed by a single gun shot.

The Horse racing industry, and especially events such as Tuesday's Melbourne Cup, operate on the basis of cognitive dissonance: an audience will not believe a truth, no matter the evidence in support, if that truth runs counter to their desired reality. The Melbourne Cup promotes an atmosphere, an experience, and as such the substance of the day – the actual race- is as far from the minds of race goers as it could be. The audience is actively encouraged to remove itself from the deathly reality of the day. While young horses in their prime, equivalent in age to a 15 year old boy or girl, are pushed to their athletic limit until they are stricken with injury or literally collapse under the weight of their performance, and in either case are quickly disposed of.

The bodies of two year old race horses are put to the test during training and performance, and they are particularly susceptible to injury as their young bones and muscles are not yet mature enough to survive the force of constant racing. Almost all professional racing horses are kept in single stalls for the majority of each day, and as a result develop stress-related psychological symptoms such as cribbing, self-mutilation and grunting noises called windsucking.

A Randwick study found that 89% of horses in the racing industry had developed stomach ulcers as a result of their high grain training diet, with many developing internal bleeding within 8 weeks of training. A melbourne based study has found that over 50% of race horses had blood in their windpipes as a result of the high intensity cardiovascular stress of racing and training, and 90% had blood deep within their lungs. This is just the beginning.

I once owned a horse, after many years of begging my parents. We kept another horse on our property and the two kept each other company. Both had been a part of the racing industry, however my hairy friend had escaped with significantly less physical and psychological damage. Benny, a six year old thoroughbred, had been cast out of the industry after failing to win any races despite a sincere effort to counter his lack of talent with close to fatal amounts of drugs.

He had been set to be slaughtered and his meat used for dog food when a teenage girl purchased him at a sale yard. He suffered exhausting, suffocating bouts of colic as a result for virtually inhaling his daily meals due to his inability to graze grass as nature intended.

Benny had been chained when he was not racing, and the adrenaline-inducing effects of the drugs he was given caused him to bite the chain in frustration, breaking his own teeth off. A personal account of the effects of this industry is necessary because the effort expended in to keeping audiences, and therefore financers, at arms length from the truth of what they are buying is an incredibly powerful tool.

When you visit the Melbourne Cup races this Tuesday, though you may enjoy your champagne and the beauty of the day that is a Queensland November, spare a thought for the athletes performing for our pleasure. Warning: your win may be significantly less satisfying.

By Erin Lawson