Firstly, thank you for all the messages of support on my stories and Twitter on my decision to not attend horse racing anymore.
Why I’m Not Covering Horse Racing Fashion Anymore
I’m against the animal cruelty and the gambling and the out of control drunkenness and violence.
Races – not just about the fashion
The fashion is a nice glamorous veneer and I DO love a good dress-up, but thought I’d take a stand. You’d be naive to think racing is about fashion, it’s big business and they need gambling to survive. They’ve had some bad PR lately with the horse deaths and we will see a lot of marketing around races fashion coming up, I am sure.
The future
I wonder if we’ll think about horse racing in the future like we think about fox hunting now. If you announced you were off to the fox hunt, people might look at you sideways, but many horse races have the same awful outcome for the animals. It is entertaining to watch, but is it worth their suffering for our entertainment? These are good questions to ask.
Gambling
It’s well known how the race events see excessive drinking and you always see footage after the Melbourne Cup of punters stumbling drunkenly around in various stages of dress/undress and it happens here but may be better concealed (or not, as many messages I’m getting attest!). It also concerns me how gambling effects vulnerable members of society. It seems very glamorous and harmless putting a few dollars on a horse if you can afford it, but many can’t or have addiction issues and families do suffer hugely.
Thanks for reading my views on my personal decision to not cover horse race fashion any longer and I hope it gives some people some food for thought.
Megan Robinson
February 2019