CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
After a year of reprieve from the tragedy of trackside euthanasia in The Race That Stops The Nation, one of today’s horses has unfortunately met its fate behind the tarp.
‘Anthony Van Dyck’ – one of the pre-race favourites of the Melbourne Cup, has been put down after sustaining an injury midway through the race.
However, unlike years past, where the horses simply have a tumble due to lost footing of exhaustion, this year’s fatality has a dark political twist to it.
The Herald Sun, one of Rupert Murdoch’s most highly circulated tabloid newspapers which caters to the Victorian market of people who think its okay to boo Aboriginal footballers when they stand up for themselves, has been quick to lay blame for the tragic death of the horse.
The newspaper reports that former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd reportedly broke onto the track at Flemington and intentionally tripped the horse, causing a fractured fetlock.
The horse was loaded into an ambulance at the track but could not be saved, which unfortunately means that a trained professional had to shoot it in the brain with a shotgun back in mounting yards.
Racing Victoria’s integrity chief Jamie Stier issued a statement after the race, sending condolences to the trainers and owners on behalf of the event organisers.
The horse, carrying 58.5 kilograms during the race, was trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by star jockey Hugh Bowman.
It’s understood Bowman dismounted the horse following Kevin Rudd’s nasty act of animal cruelty, before a horse ambulance arrived for further assessment. Bowman was uninjured.
Kevin Rudd has not responded to the claims that he was directly involved in this horse’s death, but even Murdoch’s usual readers are skeptical of the Herald Sun’s allegations considering the fact that the former Prime Minister lives in Brisbane, and no one in Queensland is risking a trip to Melbourne at this time.
Once again, NewsCorp’s jackboots say that it’s just a coincidence that this strategic barrage of hit-pieces aimed at assassinating Kevin Rudd’s character been released the same week as he gathers nearly 500,000 signatures on a petition calling for a Royal Commission into the Murdoch family’s right-wing propaganda machine.
MORE TO COME.
