As the all-important first Tuesday in November nears once again, conversations and criticisms around the Melbourne Cup and Thoroughbred horse racing begin circulating widely in the public.

Widely recognised as ‘the race that stops a nation’, the Melbourne Cup is arguably the most important and awaited race on the calendar for industry supporters, with the Flemington Carnival drawing more than 244,000 on-track attendees over the four racedays in 2022.

Due to the enormity of the race and its attraction to international participants, horse racing experiences its highest volume of global coverage extending across mainstream news publications, creating opportunity for the circulation of misinformation and common misconceptions around the care, protection and welfare of racehorses.

Kick Up for Racing is a non-profit organisation developed by Vicky Leonard and her team of educated industry participants, who experienced the Melbourne Cup through the modern digital era and witnessed the focus of the race shift from a “celebration of Australian racing” to a day of defending the industry from activists.

“Kick Up started really as an effort to address misconceptions and misinformation that’s been put out there, but we’ve evolved it now into driving community support,” Leonard said.

Though Kick Up for Racing promotes the positive messages of the racing industry, they acknowledge the tough realities and truths of the great race, particularly the four fatal limb injuries and two on-course fatalities of Cup horses that have occurred since 2013. Each of Anthony van Dyck (2020), The Cliffsofmoher (2018), Red Cadeaux (2015) and Verema (2013) were imported, internationally-trained horses that suffered limb-related injuries in the Cup, likely as a result of the vast changes in racing style, surface, and tempo in Australia to their origin countries.

Following these tragic and unacceptable events, Racing Victoria has been active and assertive in making extreme, world-first precautions over the past two years to ensure the safety of the international and local competitors. These include an expertly conducted CT scan of distal limbs prior to acceptance into the 24-horse field for the Cup, as well as a regular cortisol-level analysis and further veterinary and training track enhancements to the Werribee International Horse Centre, where global visitors are stabled over the Spring Racing period.

Through October in the build-up to this year’s edition, Leonard and the Kick Up for Racing collective undertook three ‘Kick Up For Kiwis’ workshops throughout the country, aiming to arm the New Zealand industry with key strategies in positively promoting Thoroughbred racing and changing the conversation.

“We need everybody on this ride, so we want not only negativity to be resolved, we need to be showcasing and celebrating and putting amplification over the great stuff that’s being done, showing that our industry is underpinned by fundamentally exceptional welfare for our horses,” Leonard said.

“When an industry doesn’t speak up, people assume you have something to hide so by working together and amplifying all the awesome things that are going on by opening stable doors and the gates to your farm, we can really showcase that.

“It will drive us to an industry that’s not just surviving but push us into a spot where we are really thriving as well.”

The importance of promoting positive and factual information becomes particularly integral around the Melbourne Cup period, Justine Sclater, Head of Welfare and Sustainability for New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, discussed how the Kick Up for Kiwi’s initiative creates a solid foundation for how members of the racing community can defend the industry.

“Bringing Kick Up for Kiwis to our industry in New Zealand means we can now plan, make a strategy and have evidence-based facts to be prepared and empowered to defend our industry when we come under fire from different active groups, or even friends and family that question how you feel about our sport,” Sclater said.

“For all of us, we’re proud of what we do, and it means we can answer back and feel confident about how we defend ourselves. I want us to be front-footing our industry, and be able to disseminate facts and figures in a confident manner so we can defend our industry from public negative perception.”

This Tuesday 7 November will be another day written into the history books and racing enthusiasts need this to be for positive reasons, where healthy, safe horses cross the finish line in the great race. Kick Up for Racing has generated a Melbourne Cup ‘cheat sheet’, which outlines the facts and figures around the great race, with a particular focus on promoting the vast range of benefits of the industry, while sympathising with the risk and history around the Cup.

If you are participating in a company, friend or family sweepstake and are questioned in relation to the negative associations of the Melbourne Cup, here are some tips and facts courtesy of the Kick Up for Racing team in response:

· Victoria Racing Club and Racing Victoria have instilled strict safety precautions for all horses, particularly international of the past two years and continue to tighten these regulations.

· “They are forced to run” – wild horses cover 16km/h every day in a herd, similar to that of a field of racehorses, and 500kg animal cannot be forced to run by a 50kg human, use Chautauqua as an example.

· Racehorses are bred to race, and train like any other athlete. They will not perform if they are not healthy, happy and fit.

· Australia is one of the safest racing jurisdiction in the world, with a 0.059% chance of a horse experiencing a fatal injury in Australian races.

· There are very strict (and expensive!) whip rules for jockeys, however, their padded surface is used for safety for the jockey, as well as making a ‘popping’ sound to encourage the horse.

· The Australian industry employs over 79,000 people (including many Kiwis!).

· The Melbourne Cup Carnival is the number one economic generator for annual sporting events in Australia, with $422.1 million gross economic benefit delivered to the Victorian state in 2022.

· City-trained horses experience a curated diet, regular visits to vets, farriers, physios and specialists as well as dentists, an expense upwards of AUS$60k for their caring owners.

The Kick Up for Racing team emphasises the importance of empathy when delivering messages such as these, remembering to acknowledge devastating events such as euthanising an injured horse, while adding informed knowledge to educate those outside of the industry. View Kick Up for Racing’s Melbourne Cup content here.