“I don’t know why racing gets such a bad reputation.”
Each year, horse racing comes under fire, with particular scrutiny around the time of the Grand National.
The biggest race in the sport draws in a huge amount of eyes with casual punters joining the regulars, while critics also pipe up in their droves, due to the perceived danger of the race.
This year’s passing of Celebre D’Allen brought further outrage, as he became the sixth horse to die from the race since 2019.
Famed-trainer Willie Mullins, who had a 1-2-3 in this year’s meet, with Nicky Rockett winning, has since issued a passionate defence of the sport.
Speaking with Sky Sports, he said: “I don’t know why racing gets such a bad reputation.
“In every sport, there’s injuries. You take cycling. I was talking with Denis Walsh from the Times and the amount of people he told me were killed cycling every year. Now this is competitive cycling, and we never hear that.
“How many people do you hear falling down with heart problems on the rugby pitch, on any pitch?
“On the football pitch we saw with (Christian) Eriksen who plays for Manchester United, nearly passed away on the pitch.
“Every day in Ireland and England, every day all over the world, animals get killed with cars, people get killed with cars, but there’s no sign of anyone saying we shouldn’t have any more cars or any more pets.
“It’s just a part of life, and we have to get on with it. Nothing is sweet all the time.
“You have to have good days and bad days, and horses are no different.
“And they’re looked after so well here, not only here, but by all training establishments.”
However, this defence of racing and the Grand National is very questionable, given that horses die on a much more frequent basis than footballers, while Christian Eriksen is also still alive, and football players also compete of their own free will.
