Legislation forces Mate cremation
Triple Gold Cup winner Best Mate has been prevented from being buried at Exeter racecourse “because of government legislation” and he will be cremated instead.
Henrietta Knight’s champion collapsed and died of a suspected heart attack after being pulled up on his reappearance in the William Hill Haldon Gold Cup at the Devon track on Tuesday.
Afterwards owner Jim Lewis revealed Best Mate would be buried at Exeter, but official permission was refused.
Explaining the situation, Lewis said: “We wanted to have him buried at the racecourse but there is some European legislation which forbids this to happen. There were regulations brought in by the European Parliament following foot and mouth.
“We’ve made fairly vigorous representations to them from the Exeter directors but we got nowhere at all.
“So the plan now is he’ll be cremated, then we will have a memorial service for him when we commit the ashes. I guess that would probably be next week.
“We’ll have to draw a line and it’s someone else’s chance to have a good old dream now.”
Exeter’s managing director, Geoffrey Billson, added: “We tried very hard to meet the wishes of the owner to have the animal buried here rather than cremated.
“But under European legislation and the Fallen Stock Act, sadly, we cannot do that.”
