Two horses dead in freak Newbury incident

Racing was abandoned at Newbury yesterday when two horses collapsed and died in mysterious circumstances in the paddock ahead of the first race.

The executive of the Berkshire course decided safety was paramount as they were unable to ascertain the precise cause of the incident.

Fenix Two and Marching Song were about to be mounted by their jockeys on the far side of the parade ring when they fell to the ground.

Speculation from the connections of the stricken horses was they may have suffered some form of electric shock.

Kid Cassidy recovered after briefly collapsing but was withdrawn at the start.

The Merry Giant was also affected and took part in the race, finishing tailed off, and reportedly "badly traumatised".

As the two dead animals lay under covers in the hastily cordoned-off area of the paddock, the event took place around 20 minutes late but confusion reigned and after the horses were taken to the adjoining pre-parade ring to be unsaddled, a decision was made to call the meeting off.

Officials could not offer absolute reasons for the incident and post-mortem examinations will be carried out. The police and the electricity board were informed.

Newbury's joint managing director Stephen Higgins said: "We are guessing, but at the end of the day horses are very important but people are more important and we didn't want them accessing the area in question until we know what the issue is.

"It is the racecourse's decision (to abandon] and we take responsibility for what happens on the racecourse."

Newbury chairman Christopher Spence added: "It's a nightmare for everybody. We can't be certain, we all think it's electric, but we don't know.

"We've looked at the cables and we couldn't see any damage and no work has been carried out on the paddock since the last meeting."

Andy Turnell, trainer of Marching Song, and his assistant and part-owner Graham Thorner were visibly upset.

"It looks like they've been electrocuted," said Turnell. "My fellow seemed perfectly all right and I was about to leg him up but he just went straight down."

Thorner went on: "To a layman with no evidence, you would say it was electrical. The lad who was with him was saying 'I'm getting an electric shock off this horse'.

"It can't be coincidence four horses have done the same thing and two have died, all in the same area.

"Three people said they were getting a shock off the horse. I hope we find out what it was but it doesn't bring the horses back."