Gosden calls Mirror front-page picture of Wigmore Hall shooting satanic

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/sep/23/john-gosden-daily-mirror-wigmore-hall-shooting

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John Gosden became the latest racing professional to express outrage at the Daily Mirror on Tuesday when he used the word “satanic” to describe that paper’s decision to put a picture of a fatally injured horse on its Saturday front page. “It was a very strange editorial decision, very strange,” said the trainer as he watched his horses working up the Warren Hill gallop here.

Famously Gosden provided context for shocked viewers in 2011 when the badly injured Rewilding had to be put down in front of packed grandstands at Ascot after the King George, explaining that, while horses are robust animals for the most part, they could sometimes be vulnerable to such things. “I remember saying after poor Rewilding’s accident, I’ve stood on a rail watching yearlings gallop round a field, enjoying themselves and suddenly they put a leg down wrong,” he recalled on Tuesday.

Rounding on the Mirror for printing several pictures of Wigmore Hall with an irreparably shattered leg, Gosden added: “I think there’s something pretty satanic about going for that voyeurism, really. First of all, that someone’s going to take a picture of such a thing.

“These things happen but, to use that, I think it’s pretty dark behaviour. We have to deal with the reality of life. These horses effectively live in the Ritz Hotel all their lives.

“What I never like to see is people not caring for animals. He had every care and [his injury] was dealt with absolutely in expedient fashion. The fact that someone wants to rush down there and take a picture of it is a little sick in the mind.

“And then you have an open day like you had here [on Sunday] and you just see the sheer love and affection for horses. Newmarket turns into the biggest petting zoo in Europe for a day, everything’s getting stroked and kissed.”

The Daily Mirror has been defending itself since Saturday afternoon, when it said in a statement: “While we have received criticism from some quarters, we have had a significant number of people supporting the decision to publish.”

Speaking a day after his stable star, Kingman, had been retired prematurely because of a throat infection, Gosden said that his rival Richard Hannon must now be “odds-on” to win the champion trainer’s title this season.

Gosden retains a lead of around £230,000 with just over a month to go but feels the millions on offer on Champions Day at Ascot next month will be decisive and the absence of Kingman means Hannon is in a better position to rake it in. The bookmakers agree and Hannon’s odds have dropped from 7-2 to 1-4.

“I’m very fond of the whole Hannon family and there’s plenty of teasing and banter,” Gosden said. “They’re just great fun. I regard the whole thing as a fun ding-dong but I think I just got a ding.”

Gosden would cheerfully settle for winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe a week on Sunday with Taghrooda, the 6-1 joint-favourite who appears to have a good excuse for being beaten in the Yorkshire Oaks last time.

“She did come screaming in season the day after York,” the trainer reported. “She hadn’t shown us on the day but she did when she got home; she was quite tender in that whole area. It’s an exciting race and we’re just in the last build-up to it now., so we need her to come through in her work.

“She’s done herself very well since York, she put on a great deal of weight, so I’m slightly in the business of getting some of it off again.” The filly will work on the Rowley Mile racecourse here on Wednesday morning.

Gosden will have two contenders at his local track for Saturday’s big betting race, the Cambridgeshire, a race he has won three times. One more victory would match the record for trainers in the 175-year-old race, set by William Day and Jeremy Glover.

“William [Buick] is on Cornrow and Robert Havlin will ride Maverick Wave and they’re both nice horses for the race,” Gosden said. “I’m not saying they’re Tazeez or Pipedreamer or Halling [his past winners] but they’re nice horses. They’re where they belong in the weights.”

Gosden also has hopes of achieving his ninth Group One success of the year on Saturday with Tendu in the Cheveley Park, her owner having paid £20,000 to add her as a late entrant on Monday. “She’s a lovely filly, she’s a big girl and she hadn’t even raced when they closed the race,” the trainer said.

“Six furlongs is perfect for her right now, she belongs in the race, I just hate to have to supplement. I think there’s a tendency to close races too soon and it’s all to grab owners’ money and that’s not a healthy thing. I think the British Horseracing Authority should look at it.”