Murder so Foul in Horse Racing
Well not actually murder but manslaughter, if you want to get technical about it although manslaughter so foul in horse racing doesn’t have the same ring to it. Basically the story goes that a caretaker who was high on drugs and had consumed a lot of alcohol, set fire to a rubbish heap that eventually spread throughout the building where two promising young jockeys lived. The fire spread so far that it managed to kill the two jockeys. This terrible crime occurred because of envy and a drunken stupor.
What happened and why it happened are revealed in an article on the Guardian website. “An alcoholic caretaker was today convicted of the manslaughter of two promising young jockeys by killing them in a fire attack fuelled by envy and drugs.
The fire engulfed a converted block of flats in a former tannery, killing Jamie Kyne, an 18-year-old Irish jockey earning a national name, and talented fellow rider Jan Wilson, who was 19,” (Guardian). What is scary about this story is that the manner in which these two bright and talented jockeys died was so banal and ordinary. It was a result of a crime brought on by drugs, alcohol and envy but it seems to me that it was very easy for this caretaker to lose his mind and set fire to a whole apartment block.
The situation that seems to have brought upon all this was the fact that the two young jockeys used to call the caretaker names and they made fun of him. What the situation seems to show is that the caretaker didn’t mean to kill the two young men but he only wanted to scare them. That is why it is manslaughter and not murder. This dark story would have been much more sinister if the caretaker had snuck into their rooms while they slept and murdered them in their sleep. But he didn’t and even though the setting of the fire was malicious, he hadn’t intended to kill the two promising young sports stars. Although what is really disturbing here is the fact that how can someone get so angry and hurt that they would want to kill someone else in the first place.
The caretaker was an alcoholic and was on some pretty hard drugs at the time when he set fire to the building and the alcohol and drugs fuelling his system probably made the feelings of hurt and anger feel much worse than they actually were and an all encompassing rage overtook him and he committed the horrible crime. The drugs and alcohol that he was addicted to probably made him feel that nothing could affect him and the two men and they all would be alright by the end of the situation. However things took a turn for the tragic when the two jockeys died. The alcohol clouding the caretaker’s judgement probably didn’t allow him to realise what he was doing and the severe consequences that could occur. The real tragedy that occurred was with the loss of the two promising jockeys.
These two jockeys had their whole lives ahead of them and their whole careers as well. They probably never imagined that the caretaker of their building would one day start a fire that would kill them. The sad part is that they probably never even saw it coming; they probably felt that their building had suddenly caught on fire. These two promising young jockeys could have gone on to become very famous and win many titles and championships but now no one will ever know what could have been but only what actually happened.
This tragic story has no happy ending, not for the caretaker, the two young promising jockeys or for the world of professional horse racing. The sport of horse racing lost two fine riders and sports stars while the caretaker lost his freedom. The worst of the lot had to be the two young men, who lost their lives, but in the real world these types of things happen all the time and even though it is very sad and unnecessary, sometimes it just happens.
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