First jumps racing horse death of 2016
Shocking footage has emerged of a horse breaking its leg before being euthanised at a jumps race in Melbourne.
It’s the first jumps racing death of 2016, following on from five last year.
The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses captured footage at Cranbourne Racecourse on Wednesday of the horse, Fieldmaster, breaking its leg during trials at the track.
The horse is then seen rearing up behind a green screen before it stumbles and collapses on the grass after being euthanised.
The animal rights group is banned from the track but used a camera with a long zoom to capture it over the fence.
“The racing industry try and stop us from filming so we’ve had to come up with ingenious ways to try and outsmart them,” spokesman Ward Young told AAP on Thursday.
“The horse was distressed and in pain and the best way to stop that is to not put horses in jumps races, which are 19 times more dangerous than flat races.”
Victoria and South Australia are the only Australian states that still have jumps racing.