He says it's not what it seems
National Post Staff
Warning, this post includes disturbing images
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© Provided by National Post Trainer Gordon Elliott confirmed that a photo showing him sitting on a dead horse is authentic.
The Irish horse racing community is in turmoil after a photo surfaced of a high-profile trainer sitting on the back of a dead horse, smiling, talking on the phone and giving what appears to be the peace sign, despite his attempts to explain the disturbing image.
The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) announced on Tuesday that it will convene on Friday “to hear evidence and consider an investigation” into Gordon Elliott. The trainer was set to have 104 entries at the Cheltenham Festival in England later this month, where he has been the top trainer twice, but the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has announced that it will use its own rules to ban him from racing horses pending consideration of the outcome of the IHRB’s investigation.
“I will be punished, I fully understand that,” Elliott told the Racing Post on Monday.
“It is indefensible. Whether alive or dead, the horse was entitled to dignity. A moment of madness that I am going to have to spend the rest of my life paying for and that my staff are suffering for.”
The photo in question first surfaced on social media on Saturday, Elliott said, when he confirmed its authenticity in a statement posted to Twitter on Sunday.
“I apologise profoundly for any offence that this photo has caused,” Elliott wrote. “The photo in question was taken some time ago and occurred after a horse had died of an apparent heart attack on the gallops.”
Elliott said that while the photo looks “callous and staged” there is an innocent explanation for the unfortunate image, which has been confirmed to show Morgan, a seven-year-old horse that died of a heart aneurysm in 2019.
“At what was a sad time, which it is when any horse under my care passes away, my initial reaction was to get the body removed from where it was positioned. I was standing over the horse waiting to help with the removal of the body, in the course of which, to my memory I received a call and, without thinking, I sat down to take it. Hearing a shout from one of my team, I gestured to wait until I was finished,” Elliott wrote.
“Such background information may seem trivial at this time and will not allay the concerns of many people both within and outside the world of horse racing. However, I feel it is important to provide people with some context surrounding this photo.”
Irish Minister of State for Sport Jack Chambers called into doubt Elliott’s explanation.
“Everything that has been said so far doesn’t explain what everybody saw,” Chambers told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
He said that he was “shocked, appalled and horrified” by the image, calling it a “complete and profound error of judgment” on Elliot’s part and “really disturbing from an animal welfare perspective.”
The minister said Elliott, who could have his licence to train suspended or revoked by the IHRB, must be “held fully accountable for his actions.”
“Everything should be on the table,” Chambers said. “Ireland has to set a high bar when it comes to animal standards.”
The Irish horse racing community is in turmoil after a photo surfaced of a high-profile trainer sitting on the back of a dead horse, smiling, talking on the phone and giving what appears to be the peace sign, despite his attempts to explain the disturbing image.
The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) announced on Tuesday that it will convene on Friday “to hear evidence and consider an investigation” into Gordon Elliott. The trainer was set to have 104 entries at the Cheltenham Festival in England later this month, where he has been the top trainer twice, but the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has announced that it will use its own rules to ban him from racing horses pending consideration of the outcome of the IHRB’s investigation.
“I will be punished, I fully understand that,” Elliott told the Racing Post on Monday.
“It is indefensible. Whether alive or dead, the horse was entitled to dignity. A moment of madness that I am going to have to spend the rest of my life paying for and that my staff are suffering for.”
The photo in question first surfaced on social media on Saturday, Elliott said, when he confirmed its authenticity in a statement posted to Twitter on Sunday.
“I apologise profoundly for any offence that this photo has caused,” Elliott wrote. “The photo in question was taken some time ago and occurred after a horse had died of an apparent heart attack on the gallops.”
Elliott said that while the photo looks “callous and staged” there is an innocent explanation for the unfortunate image, which has been confirmed to show Morgan, a seven-year-old horse that died of a heart aneurysm in 2019.
“At what was a sad time, which it is when any horse under my care passes away, my initial reaction was to get the body removed from where it was positioned. I was standing over the horse waiting to help with the removal of the body, in the course of which, to my memory I received a call and, without thinking, I sat down to take it. Hearing a shout from one of my team, I gestured to wait until I was finished,” Elliott wrote.
“Such background information may seem trivial at this time and will not allay the concerns of many people both within and outside the world of horse racing. However, I feel it is important to provide people with some context surrounding this photo.”
Irish Minister of State for Sport Jack Chambers called into doubt Elliott’s explanation.
“Everything that has been said so far doesn’t explain what everybody saw,” Chambers told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
He said that he was “shocked, appalled and horrified” by the image, calling it a “complete and profound error of judgment” on Elliot’s part and “really disturbing from an animal welfare perspective.”
The minister said Elliott, who could have his licence to train suspended or revoked by the IHRB, must be “held fully accountable for his actions.”
“Everything should be on the table,” Chambers said. “Ireland has to set a high bar when it comes to animal standards.”
© Twitter The horse has been identified as Morgan, a seven-year-old horse that died of a heart aneurysm in 2019
On Monday, the BHA said it was appalled by the image.
“We expect all those in our sport to demonstrate respect for horses,” the BHA said in a statement . “People who work in our industry believe their values – of caring for and respecting our horses – have been deeply undermined by this behaviour. On their behalf, and on behalf of all horse-lovers, we say unequivocally that British horseracing finds this totally unacceptable.”
The BHA said that while it was banning Elliott pending the IHRB investigation, it would allow owners to transfer their horses to a different trainer and enter them in upcoming races.
Elliott, who is based in County Meath, Ireland, which is just north of Dublin, is one of the country’s top trainers. In 2007, the then-29-year-old became the youngest trainer to win a Grand National, in just his second year on the job. His horse Tiger Roll has won twice at the Grand National — an annual National Hunt race held in Liverpool. His horses have also won 32 times at Cheltenham Festival, among other successes.
“It absolutely breaks my heart to read and hear people say that I have no respect for my horses. That couldn’t be further from the truth. My whole life has revolved around horses since I was a child. I know nothing else. Horses are all I have. I came from nothing and built a dream,” Elliott told the Racing Post.
“My heart goes out to all my staff. I know how hard they work. I know that I have not only let them down but that I have let the whole racing industry down too. That is down to my stupidity and I am truly, truly sorry.”
On Monday, the BHA said it was appalled by the image.
“We expect all those in our sport to demonstrate respect for horses,” the BHA said in a statement . “People who work in our industry believe their values – of caring for and respecting our horses – have been deeply undermined by this behaviour. On their behalf, and on behalf of all horse-lovers, we say unequivocally that British horseracing finds this totally unacceptable.”
The BHA said that while it was banning Elliott pending the IHRB investigation, it would allow owners to transfer their horses to a different trainer and enter them in upcoming races.
Elliott, who is based in County Meath, Ireland, which is just north of Dublin, is one of the country’s top trainers. In 2007, the then-29-year-old became the youngest trainer to win a Grand National, in just his second year on the job. His horse Tiger Roll has won twice at the Grand National — an annual National Hunt race held in Liverpool. His horses have also won 32 times at Cheltenham Festival, among other successes.
“It absolutely breaks my heart to read and hear people say that I have no respect for my horses. That couldn’t be further from the truth. My whole life has revolved around horses since I was a child. I know nothing else. Horses are all I have. I came from nothing and built a dream,” Elliott told the Racing Post.
“My heart goes out to all my staff. I know how hard they work. I know that I have not only let them down but that I have let the whole racing industry down too. That is down to my stupidity and I am truly, truly sorry.”
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