4 horses die at Cheltenham Festival as charity urges better safety and welfare measures
A leading animal welfare charity says the deaths of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival underlines the need for the racing industry to provide better equine care
CHELTENHAM, England (AP) — The deaths of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival — including one after the prestigious Gold Cup — underline the need for the racing industry to provide better equine care, a leading animal welfare charity said Saturday.
Hansard suffered a fatal injury when pulled up in a race on Tuesday, HMS Seahorse and Saint Le Fort died following falls on Wednesday and Friday, respectively, while 12-year-old Envoi Allen collapsed and died after competing in the grueling Gold Cup on Friday.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the four deaths took the number of horses to have lost their lives in competitive racing in Britain this year to 24.
“The scale of fatalities reiterate the urgency that lessons must be learned, including what caused the loss of life, decision-making during the race, and any future means of prevention,” the RSPCA said.
“We continue to engage,” it added, “with the industry to advocate for further improvements, including the introduction of greater safety measures, and improvements for equine welfare both on and off the track. Given the wealth and expertise within the sector, we remain hopeful that there remains significant scope to do more to meaningfully improve equine welfare.”
Recommended for you
The RSPCA said horses deserve "to have every possible step taken to improve their safety and welfare” given the money events like the Cheltenham Festival and the upcoming Grand National generate.
“We will keep engaging with the racing industry to encourage continual welfare improvements,” the charity said, “and explore further measures to protect horses from injury and death, and promote good welfare throughout their lives.”
James Given, the British Horseracing Authority’s director of equine regulation safety and welfare, described the latest deaths as devastating and said all would be subject to in-depth examination as part of the regulator’s standard procedure.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.