One sport I have never really got into is horse racing as the horse seemed to do all the hard work and aside from a few big names had the credit taken from them by the jockeys. I believed it to only be of interest to gamblers and if you had no money invested in a race then the sporting spectacle was somewhat diminished. That's not to say that moments of drama or sporting excellence can't occur but again they are more likely to revolve around the jockey as we can get involved with the back story for a tale of triumphing over the odds such as Bob Champion or one off displays like Frankie Dettori and his seven winners in a day. It is rarer for people outside those directly involved to get emotionally involved with the actual horses save for the very few exceptions that seep into the public consciousness like Nijinsky or Red Rum.
   For all that everybody understands and feels for the two horses that died at Newbury yesterday after what is suspected to be an electric shock.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/horse_racing/9395743.stm
We can grasp this tragedy by the very nature of its unusualness and relate it to other incidents of people dying before their time. Any suggestions that this only goes to show that the sport is cruel to its equine competitors is ridiculous as this occurrence has nothing to do with the sport itself. For all that seeing horses being whipped  during races as a teenager left me feeling uneasy and contributed to my antipathy but not enough to stop me having the obligatory flutter on the Grand National.
   Hopefully the issue can be resolved swiftly and the necessary precautions put in place to prevent a repeat of this awful and bizarre incident.