BEHIND horse racing’s glamorous facade lies a catalogue of suffering and death.

According to national campaign group Animal Aid, more than 400 horses are raced to death every year.

Some 38 per cent of these fatalities occur during, or immediately after, a race and result from a broken leg, back, neck or pelvis, fatal spinal injuries, exhaustion, heart attack, or burst blood vessels.

The other victims perish from training injuries or are killed after being assessed by their owners as no-hopers.

This sport is only kept alive through betting income and course attendance fees.

Please don’t back the cruelty. For you it’s only a harmless flutter, but horses could pay with their lives.

MRS P A SUMMER, Malton