The Lanzarote Hurdle card at Kempton Park was marred by the death of three horses, including the Grade One-winning Kalif Du Berlais, whose loss Paul Nicholls described as \u201ca big kick in the teeth\u201d and a \u201csad day\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kalif Du Berlais \u2013 whose ownership group includes Sir Alex Ferguson \u2013 unseated Harry Cobden in the four-runner Coral Silviniaco Conti Chase and landed lame, with the broken shoulder he sustained proving untreatable and he was euthanised by the veterinary team on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Nicholls said: \u201cIt\u2019s a sad day when you lose horses like that, it\u2019s hard on the whole team. It\u2019s a big kick in the teeth for everyone, the owners, the poor girl who looks after him \u2013 you hate to see that happen. He was just showing his class today, he jumped and travelled well and sadly now he will never be able to show the potential we thought he had.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can say as much as I like, but it\u2019s just a shame for the whole team. Harry was extremely upset and is missing his ride in the last as he doesn\u2019t feel great about it. He\u2019s a big, bold horse who attacks his fences and those horses, when they do that, can end up having a bad fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was enthusiastic today and travelling beautifully and we\u2019ll never know where we would have ended up, we\u2019ve always had a lot of faith in him. These things happen, sadly, and we\u2019ll have to try to pick ourselves up and move forward. These horses get the best of everything, there\u2019s not much you can say to make it better at this point.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt never gets any easier when these things happen and it\u2019s a big old blow.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Coral Daily Rewards Shaker Handicap Chase, Jonjo and AJ O\u2019Neill\u2019s Peso was pulled up on the flat with an injury that could not be treated, leaving racecourse vets with no choice but to euthanise him.<\/p>\n
Harry Derham saddled Wertpol for the juvenile hurdle and the horse looked to be running a huge race before falling at the last and sustaining a life-ending injury. Derham said on his X account: \u201cAn utterly miserable day at Kempton Park today losing Wertpol who we only had the good fortune of having in our yard for a short period of time.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s a sad day when you lose horses like that, it\u2019s hard on the whole team. It\u2019s a big kick in the teeth for everyone,\u2019 said Paul Nicholls. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a bright talent who was fresh and happy doing his work every day, often playing around and expressing himself. He loved his job and I am so sad for his Heart Of The South syndicate, who are the most wonderful group of people. Racing can at times be a painful sport and today has been a tough day for a number of connections. A day to forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Kempton Park said: \u201cAll of us at Kempton Park care deeply about the welfare of all racehorses, as do the thousands of racing staff who provide them with world-class levels of care at home every day. Our heartfelt condolences are with the connections of all three horses.\u201d<\/p>\n
A starement from the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) said: \u201cOur thoughts are with the connections of the horses, including the owners, trainers and the racing grooms, who looked after and cared for them throughout their lives and will be most affected by their loss \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BHA will now analyse each of the incidents in detail through our fatality review process. This involves an in-depth review into every fatality that occurs on a raceday, with input from experts including veterinarians, racecourse teams and participants.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this stage there does not appear to be any common factor that can be attributed to these incidents, with each of the injuries different in nature and sustained in unique circumstances.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut as is the case where there is more than one fatality at a single race meeting, the BHA will also initiate its additional review process to assess all relevant factors in conjunction with the racecourse and determine whether there may be any causal links. These processes are part of wider and ongoing efforts across British racing to continually improve safety and reduce avoidable risk of injuries and fatalities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lanzarote Hurdle card at Kempton Park was marred by the death of three horses, including the Grade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[288,1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-687813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-horse-racing","9":"tag-racing","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115873579173691080","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}