Fifth October death at Wetherby

A fifth horse has died in a month during racing at Wetherby, two weeks after four fatalities on the opening day of the jumps season on 14 October.

Racing resumed at the West Yorkshire course on Friday following a British Horseracing Authority investigation into the previous deaths.

Improvements to the course were carried out and racing was allowed to go ahead.

But in Saturday's 1.10 race, Fell Pack suffered fatal injuries in a fall at the last set of hurdles.

Fell Pack was trained by John Quinn at Malton in North Yorkshire.

In the same race, one of seven during the Charlie Hall Chase meeting, Manor Park was taken off the course in an ambulance with a leg injury.

Packed grandstand

BBC racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght said: "In the 1.10 Fell Pack suffered what turned out to be fatal injuries right in front of the packed grandstand on the busiest day of the year for Wetherby."

He said the BHA would almost certainly have to consider a report into the latest death at a meeting on Monday.

On 14 October the racing world was shocked when thoroughbreds Marrel, Divex, Nut Hand and Miss Giboa were all destroyed after races at Wetherby.

The BHA investigated the course after the deaths and improvements were carried out.

Wetherby's chief executive, Jonjo Sanderson, said an inquest had not revealed an obvious cause of the deaths.

Mr Sanderson said: "I walked the course with a British Horse Racing Authority inspectorate.

"We concluded that despite unfortunate circumstances there wasn't anything that was glaringly obvious as to the cause of any problems."

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
Wetherby Racing
British Horseracing Authority
RSPCA
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites