A fortnight ago last Friday evening, Gilbert Eastman, a 35 year old professional boxer, collapsed in his changing room after a boxing match and had to be rushed to hospital to undergo an emergency brain operation. Thankfully, the operation was a success and Gilbert is recovering at home.

However, as is usual when these tragedies happen, the anti-boxing brigade is banging on again about banning boxing. “It’s not safe”, “It has no place in society” etc, etc, etc, they ramble on with tedious monotony. But when you look at their arguments, you will see that boxing is held to a different standard than other sports - and when it comes to the facts their argument well and truly flounders, as the dangers of boxing have less impact and happen more infrequently than in nearly any other more ‘popular’ sport.

And I would like to suggest that before we even think about banning this great sport, we should look at banning Horse racing instead. I’m sure that some of you will throw your hands up in horror at the thought of this, but the fact is that boxers voluntarily enter into the boxing ring, having full knowledge of all the risks involved. The horses get no such option.

At this stage, I feel it only right to state that I boxed myself for a great number of years and have attended a huge number of fights, both throughout this country and abroad. I have never been to a horse race in my life. Never wanted to either, as I love horses too much.

The fact is that horse racing is cruel and should be banned to protect horses from fatal injuries and the inhumane treatment that they receive on a daily basis. The horse is a highly sensitive animal and horses too often experience pain, suffering, and death, for reasons they are unable to understand, as they perform for their caretakers.

Though the trainers and jockeys may care about the horses, most owners see them as investments and a way to make money. Indeed the owner of a filly who had a heart attack and died during a race in the USA simply said “I guess that’s part of the game”. Some game!

Since 1997, 27 horses have died during the three-day Grand National meet and there has only ever been one year without fatalities. Four horses died last year, two during the Grand National itself. Only 11 out of the 40 starters managed to finish the deliberately punishing 30-jump, four-and-a-half mile race.

Shockingly, although some injuries are serious and can't be treated, many horses who could have been treated are euthanized so the owner won't have to pay vet fees. One-third of horses die on racecourses, while the others are destroyed as a result of training injuries, or are killed because they are no longer commercially viable. The horse racing authorities have resolutely failed to put horse death information into the public domain, preferring to dismiss equine fatalities as ‘accidental’ and ‘unexplained’. Unexplained???!!! Even when several horses die at a single meeting, the term ‘statistical blip’ is often deployed. The current running total 273 deaths in 590 days in UK. Truly horrific.

And now onto the cruel & inhumane treatment these poor horses suffer throughout their lives.

Horses are routinely forced to run before their legs are fully developed - until a horse's third birthday, the animals' legs are not fully developed, which increases the chances for injury. And racing isn't a natural thing horses do. Yes, they gallop, but if you watch horses in a pasture, they certainly do not race. They're forced to do it, running around at speeds of over 30 mph, often for over a mile.

The horses are given drugs, some legal, to make them run faster or hide the pain. Some horses who have health problems are simply given pain killers before a race. They’re all given Lasix, which controls bleeding in the lungs; phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory; and cortisco-steroids, which is for pain and inflammation. Labs can't even begin to detect all the illegal drugs.

Horses are whipped mercilessly both on and off the track - if an animal (or indeed a human being) was beaten in such a manner outside of the track action would be taken against the person doing the beating. It has to stop.

And the final insult - most of the horses aren't retired to pasture. The owners don't want to keep a horse that won't make them money. The only horses that are kept are winners, for breeding; otherwise they're sold to slaughterhouses.

So let’s ban this so-called ‘Sport of Kings’ and leave Boxing, the ‘King of Sports’, well alone!