The 2025 count again makes for grim reading but a horse called Constitution Hill could be a test case for applying the Animal Welfare Act to the ‘sport’

Dene Stansall has seen thousands of deaths of horses on Britain’s racecourses over the years but he describes that of Wholly Boley on 3 February at Carlisle as ‘horrendous’. The eight-year-old Ireland-bred gelding was in the rear group in a National Hunt Chase when he fell and broke his neck.

It has been a bad start to the year. Three horses died in races on a single day (10 January) at Kempton Park. When we speak, Dene has just had confirmation of another death at this racecourse, a horse called Appleshaw, on 2 February.

Dene set up Animal Aid’s Race Horse Death Watch in 2007 and has maintained it ever since. He has recently completed his initial tally for 2025 so we know that at least 154 horses died on courses last year. That number is likely to increase slightly as he gains additional confirmations. Fifty racecourses had at least one death.

In 2025, the worst records for deaths were Southwell (nine) followed by Worcester and Chepstow (eight each). The overall tally each year is affected by factors such as the number of horses that race, the number of races, and weather conditions. “What we can say is that this is a very dangerous ‘sport’,” says Dene.

He feels Southwell, a small course in Nottinghamshire, is one of the most dangerous in the country outside of Aintree. It is a tight course, the fences come very quickly, they are old-fashioned fixed brush hurdles, and it attracts less experienced horses. “If a horse makes a mistake at one fence, it isn’t back in its stride for the next one.”

Dene has personally logged every horse death and all the details for the 18 years of the Death Watch (a confirmed 3,112 deaths to date). There are horses missing because it includes only ones that he can have confirmed by the regulator, owners, trainers or jockeys. It involves looking at all of the racing results from all courses to identify possible victims, investigating the outcome of horses that have fallen, and scouring the official race reports. Sometimes fatalities will be reported, particularly with higher profile horses. “The ‘bread-and-butter horses’, which I am sad to say are the most common ‘victims’ – I don’t like to call them that but it is how the industry defines them – are harder to find.”

What is missing are deaths during training, deaths of young horses that never make it to a racecourse and, at the other end of the system, it is not known how many horses leaving the industry are vulnerable to an early death.

Constitution Hill… A Test Case

Notably, working with the relatively recently established Lawyers for Animals (its launch party is 24 April), Dene is hoping to apply the UK’s Animal Welfare Act to horse racing. His attention is focused on one horse, Constitution Hill, for what could prove a test case.

Constitution Hill is a high-profile nine-year-old who has won almost £900,000 in prize money and has had eight ‘Grade 1’ victories. However, he has fallen three times in his last four races. A legal letter will warn his owner and trainer that for Constitution Hill to run – as currently planned – at the Cheltenham Festival on 10 March could be in contravention of the Animal Welfare Act.

In Dene’s opinion, Constitution Hill has suffered a loss of confidence and is lucky to still be alive after the recent falls. Presumably to try to rebuild his confidence, the stable is planning to run him in a ‘novice’ flat race at – ironically – Southwell on 20 February. However, this race will expose Constitution Hill to an unfamiliar type of race on an unfamiliar surface (all-weather), with the additional complexity of starting stalls.

Dene notes the industry’s language when it comes to Constitution Hill’s problems. ‘Sloppy star needs to sharpen up’ and he needs to ‘learn his lessons’. Whether informed or ill-informed, the horse’s form has created a lot of debate in the industry. One commentator, on the informed side, talks about him having ‘developed indecision’, something that is difficult to train out of a horse.

There was an attempt to use the Animal Welfare Act to prosecute a jockey after the 2025 Grand National but the industry would not release the footage needed to build the case, particularly the head-on video that is used by stewards. The exhausted 13-year-old horse, Celebre d’Allen, collapsed at the last fence, got up, and collapsed again. Whether or not it was connected to the race, the horse was dead within 76 hours. “The industry closes up,” says Dene. The jockey received a ten-day ban.

This time, the plan is to use the Act to try to stop Constitution Hill from running in a highly competitive, challenging race. “We are testing new ground, it could be quite exciting and it could be a powerful tool,” says Dene, not just for horseracing but for other areas as well, he hopes.

Horse racing is one area covered in detail in ‘How Long Shall These Things Be? Inspirational Stories from the Front Line for Animals’ by Martin Whybrow, due out this month. To pre-order, click here.