Some of the rare joys during this eventful year have resulted from Mr. Branchini's “What's in a Name” columns, highlighting clever uses of the King's (Queen's?) English in what may be one of our most difficult tasks in racing–namely that of naming a horse. Joy, that is, until extolling the talents of Mr. Ricky Gervais in Wednesday's edition.
We recall all too readily the actor's vitriol against horse racing over the past eight years or so, and confirmed our memory with a cursory internet search. Not including Mr. Gervais's own rantings, one of the articles contained the following bit of claptrap from its author, when describing for the uninitiated how we deal with injured animals–“Horses can adapt to prosthetic legs, given their caretaker's willingness to pay for the operation and treatment. But horse racing is for the financial benefit of the “owner,” so injured animals are typically treated as disposable commodities.” PETA had its familiar hand in that one, but as Mr. Gervais obviously promotes such sentiment and outright distortion of the facts, one would hope that, moving forward, the TDN could find more appropriate examples of clever adventures in appellative pursuits.
When faced with the expected pushback from those in the British horse racing professions, Mr. Gervais made the following rebuttal: “The only valid form of any sort of censorship of ideas in the art is the right of people not to listen.” Having availed ourselves of this right for the past several years as regards Mr. Gervais's performances on screen and through the airwaves, we humbly suggest that TDN consider a similar response.
Thanks always for your efforts in a very informative publication, and continued best wishes as we navigate through the remainder of this pandemic.
Kind regards,
Frank Shipp, Upperville, VA
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