Made in Chelsea’s Lucy Watson and Love Island’s Chris Hughes weren’t a duo that we ever thought we’d be writing about in the same sentence, but the warm weekend weather seemed to bring out everyone’s fiery opinions. And whilst the two reality stars surely have many similarities, there’s one area where they definitely don’t agree: horse racing. Royal Ascot then – which took place over last week – really brought their differences to the foreground.
Taking to Twitter, Lucy slammed the event in a statement writing, ‘I am so sick of seeing people dress up to go and watch horses risk their lives at the races… being kicked and whipped; forced to do something they would – not – choose – to – do.
‘If you saw someone kicking and whipping a dog what would you do? Why is it okay to do it to horses? Sport? Fashion event? Please think about the victims here. As hard as that might be for some. Horses die every year at the races. They get injured and put down. Horses deserve better.’
Whilst several people supported her hastag #banhorseracing with one commenting ‘Lucy I agree. Ban all horse racing it is a cruel and meaningless sport. I wouldn’t go and would never watch it’, others took the opportunity to throw their support behind Ascot and other races like it, including Love Island’s Chris Hughes.
Chris – who has presented live horse racing coverage with ITV racing since 2019 - replied to Lucy’s claims saying, ‘The best looked after animals in the world. If racing stopped, then roughly 50,000 horses in training in the UK and Ireland would have no home, no one to look after them, more would die in the wild than on the racecourse, and the horses you love, like we do, would never exist.’
Lucy then quickly fired back, ‘So well looked after that approx 250 horses die every year on British race courses. They’re bred into existence to be used as commodities & forcibly risk their lives for people like you to profit… unbiased opinions only please.’
But the former Love Island contestant wasn’t finished sharing his opinion, ‘It’s not simply a biased opinion, but it’s factual. There’s more to it than your initial statement, which is why people will respond in that sense.There are risks with everything in life. You should visit a racing yard, on National Racehorse Week, it’s insightful and eye-opening.’
The MIC star then replied with ‘I’m okay thanks’ which led to Chris responding with, ‘There we go. You can’t educate people who don’t want to be educated. Not holding up very well is it.’
Unfortunately for Chris, after a follower later pointed out that Lucy had previously attended Royal Ascot she explained that it was in fact education that her led her to her new stance writing, ‘Can’t believe I ever supported such a cruel sport. I even remember that day being very eye-opening for me... Yes I used to watch polo. I even used to own and ride my own horses in competitions. I’ve educated myself, learnt about the horses’ perspective and no longer partake.’
As the Twitter spat continues into the morning, Lucy and Chris are currently still going at it online. Lucy posted a new statement just hours ago about how her perspective on horse racing changed, but still Chris isn't having it.
And thus the war of the reality TV stars continues - it's like a very posh episode of The Challenge, right? But at the heart of it, there's a nuanced and complex debate being had here. Whether you side with Chris or Lucy, there's no denying that raising concerns on the ethics of horse-racing at a time when people are celebrating it is a worthy conversation.