On Saturday……..being a loyal SDLP member I picked OrganisedConfusion for the Grand National. I choose political parties better than I choose horses.

The Grant National is something more than a horse race. It is an institution in Britain and Ireland. A ritual even. The office sweepstake, the family gathering round to pick a winner……….amateur punters (the kind the bookie likes),the once a year visit to the bookies. The ritual tearing up of the betting slip.

Actually I have had some good results. BobbyJo, Papillon, Hedgehunter…….choosing the best fancied Irish horse is my usual tactic. Probably 75% of the jockeys are Irish because they are the crazy enough to tackle the course. But there is something almost like a cavalry charge as forty horses gallop towards the first fence. Indeed that first quarter mile is probably the best part of the race.

But last year two horses were killed. This year another two were killed.

There is an uneasy feeling. I strongly believe in animal welfare. I hesitate to say animal “rights” because that would be hypocritical. I am not a vegetarian.

But I have enjoyed horse-riding. Much too old now. Horse Racing is for millionaires at one level and still a serious if not always profitable business at the lower end of the scale where the rewards are not about prize money……gambling is the real money maker.

Of course thoroughbreds are bred. But the ‘chasers are often geldings and after a working life are not always retired gracefully. Gamblers draw a discrete veil over this side of the “sport”. Yet there is something “noble”……..”honest” about a horse. The book and movie “War Horse” spell that out. And defenders of the Grand National will claim that it is not cruel……..havent the “bleeding hearts” and “city people ” and other “lefties”  noticed that a horse which has fallen often carries on jumping. Indeed one of the horses “put down” on Saturday fell and raced on riderless to break its leg in a second fall. Well……..guilty as charged. I am a bleeding heart lefty and I feel slightly guilty….perhaps increasingly so….that on occasions horses die while giving me pleasure.

I am city born………but living now in a small village, I have had to get used to the fact that my neighbours shoot ducks and bunny rabbits. And they raise animals for profit (and I eat them after all) so I would be mightily unpopular and even hypocritical if I started waving placards and protesting.

We all have thresholds. Society has banned bear-baiting. And dog fighting. And cock fighting. But we know that “dog fights” are more common than we like to think. Greyhounds are rarely allowed to retire into graceful old age. Actually I dont care for greyhound racing.

But people might also say that it is wrong of me to have a pet cat. Try telling that to Keano.

The Grand National will get some bad publicity for a couple of days but basically the horse racing authorities will review safety and declare themselves happy. Just like last year.

Thats how life is. In Ireland we still have hare coursing. We still have fox hunting. I am not comfortable with it. Calling for bans (both are banned in England) would not be effective. Merely divisive. We are (still) a rural people with rural values. Tradition plays a part in our thinking. So does Hypocrisy.