Top sire Montjeu has passed away

[jayalexander]

16yo Montjeu, sire of three Epsom derby winners has died after a short illness :( Seems to have been an awful lot of horse deaths recently. Perhaps it's the increased media interest that is highlighting it, but it does make you think a little. Even if some of us are purely gamblers and have not yet developed a deep affection for horses, an untimely death of a horse is still a disappointment. Winner of the 4:20 at Ludlow, yesterday, U B Careful, died on the way to the winners enclosure :( Group 3 winner, Census, also died on Wednesday :( And a bit of irony here, that I read in Private Eye t'other day; three horses died while filming Luck and the series was cancelled, but five died during Cheltenham and the festival carried on...

[Trotter]

Re: Top sire Montjeu has passed away RIP Montjeu...... Unfortnuately I missed his entire career as it happened whilst I was on a break, so I never saw him run :spank On Jay's more general point......... I post a lot on a general discussion forum and every year at The National time and Cheltenham people post threads saying how cruel racing is and shouldn''t it be banned. Isn't it awful how they whip the horses and the jockeys should be whipped, see how they like it. And if a horse hurts it's leg they shoot it cos it costs money to feed and if it can't run they don't want it any more etc etc etc And other people come on to defend the sport, saying how the horses live a life of luxury, how they're so much better off than other livestock like cows, how they can't make them run if they don't want to, how the whip doesn't hurt very much , etc, etc I used to take part in these debates (in the second camp !) but I've given up Fact is that you can't argue with people who argue from a point of no knowledge - informed argument is meaningless when 3 horses have just died in one race at Cheltenham I've now come to the conclusion that actually I know it's a bit cruel, I know horses will get killed........and the truth is that it's a price I can live with That's not really a position that you can argue against animal loving housewives