Jack Averty: Don’t want to be a nag but is horse racing so bad after all?

With the increasingly-popular Cheltenham festival taking place last week and the free-for-all of the Grand National right around the corner, horse racing has had its annual thrust to the front of the news agenda.

But it’s a tricky subject, and the case for horse racing being cruel is a strong one.

These majestic animals have had no choice in life, some of them are bred for sport and the entertainment of others. They are made to put their life on the line race after race purely for the public’s enjoyment.

How many footballers, rugby players, gymnasts or cyclists do you know who, from the day they were born, were earmarked for a particular career?

Sure some kids showed a natural talent for sport from an incredibly young age but the option was always there for them to pack it in and pursue something else if they so wished.

Horses never had that freedom. If you are a foal of Frankel were you ever going to be anything else but a racehorse?

I’m not sure any of Gary Lineker’s children were forced into a football programme from the day they popped out the oven, nor are they likely to become ambassadors for Walkers.

As demonstrated by the sad news last week, horses do die fairly frequently out on the racecourses and many may be asking, for what?

While we’d all love to picture these racehorses grazing their days away in a field and basking in the great British sunshine (granted when the Beast from the East isn’t on the prowl), the reality isn’t quite so rosy.

Sure they may finally get to bask in that fabulous farmland when they get older, but they’ve got to run the life or death gauntlet and actually make it to retirement first.

But then you have the other side of the card – race horses may run the risk of dying early and inhumanely, but at least they are guaranteed a good life.

They are treated like royalty. If you saw the scenes at Cheltenham when Altior trotted into the winners enclosure after grinding out another victory in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, you’d think this thoroughbred was Tutankhamun reincarnated.

The huge roar that erupted from the crowd wasn’t for jockey Nico De Boinville, even after a gutsy ride, nor was it for trainer Nicky Henderson who nurtured Altior – no it was for the horse himself, they worshipped him.

People aren’t really bothered about the trainers, the jockeys or the owners – it’s the horse that’s put on a plinth.

We fall in love with the horses, we adore them and we follow them every step in their career.

They’re not just animals, they’re gods.

And it’s not just us who feel this way, trainers and owners love their horses like they’re their own children.

The more cynical may argue that of course trainers are devoted to their steeds given how valuable they are.

Samcro, one of the Irish stars to emerge from Cheltenham last week, was bought by Ryanair mogul Michael O’Leary for £335,000 back in 2016.

Up here in the Midlands, that could easily get you a four-bed detached with a spacious garden, long driveway, several en-suites and all the patio under the sun.

So having shelled out all that cash for a horse, who wouldn’t spend their days worshipping it like it was the second coming of Christ?

Mr O’Leary has tried to clarify in an interview that Samcro is in fact NOT the second coming of Jesus Christ but, after the way it ran last week, he’s not fooling anyone.

You would also think that spending such vast sums of money on horses that the owners, and then the trainers who they hand them to, would be in charge.

How wrong you would be.

These animals may not have a choice about becoming racehorses but when it comes to their day-to-day lives, they’re their own boss.

If they don’t want to run, they’ll find a way to make sure they won’t run.

If they don’t want to get up in the morning, they won’t get up.

Trainers and owners exist to serve them, not the other way round.

They get the kind of care us NHS patients could only dream of.

But aside from all of this, what else could horses actually do?

We harp on about how they have no choice and are forced into racing, but do we ever stop to think that they might actually enjoy it?

Even if they don’t, and to them it’s just a job like us working the checkout at a supermarket, don’t you think that’s better than just plodding around in a field for 20-odd years?

I don’t think it’s breaking news to say that horses can’t grow up to be lawyers or accountants – their options are somewhat limited.

They can either take part in some form of competition – racing, dressage etc – or just spend their lives in grassland, making friends with dandelions.

No doubt the cruelty debate will rage on for years to come, but I for one would be happy to be called the second coming of Jesus Christ.