Racing Post Letters published April 26 1999 from The Marchioness of Tavistock “Greed”.

All we read about is that the only thing needed is more prize money.

As a horse owner and breeder for the last 35 years, I feel that, without doubt, the most urgent requirement is for better basic care of the horse, and to have that we need to have more attention paid to the welfare of stabl4e staff.

Racing for a hundred-plus days during the summer is, without doubt, the very worst way of caring for both man and beast, and it must be re-thought. If there is to be racing for 18 consecutive Sundays, then Monday must be a blank day.

Even more importantly, the whole issue of proper care and welfare of horses and staff must be tackled.

In my opinion, this whole issue is driven by greed – the greed of bookmakers and the government for revenue from racing. What has to happen is that we have to put much more into racing before we can take more out.

At present, many horses spend 23 hours out of 24 in a box as there are not enough lads available to be able to take them out for a pick of grass in the evening or, in fact, to be able to do anything but the basics; many lads having responsibility for three or more horses, and even more on days when horses are away racing.

The time a lad is away racing all of “his” horses have to be looked after. As you can imagine, Bank Holidays in a racing yard can be a nightmare. Rarely are there lads available to lead a horse up for a farrier, or indeed to do anything extra at all.

If we are to have a hundred days of unbroken racing, then staffing levels will need to increase substantially for there to be the proper infrastructure in the yard to ensure the standard of care that should exist, and also for the lads themselves to have a proper life

The Marchioness of Tavistock.