It is not a good time to be a racehorse in Italy. Many Italians already had a taste for cavallo, but with the economy dipping and people staying away from the races, horse steaks, stews and cutlets are a set feature on many more menus.
As the bets dry up, and with many of the traditional New Year's Day meetings cancelled for only the third time since World War II, the Italian press has been full of reports suggesting many of Italy's 15,000 racehorses could face a one-way trot to the butcher's shop.
Last weekend, 200 officials and horse owners from the Agnano hippodrome carted their animals around the streets of Naples in protest at the crisis affecting their industry. In the north, the racecourses in Bologna and Cesena closed at the end of the year without knowing when, or if, they will reopen.
Tomaso Grassi, boss of Hippogroup, which runs both courses, said the 480 horses and the people who looked after them faced an uncertain future. "There's going to be some major downsizing in horse-racing," he said, "and it will be hard to find a home for all the animals."
The situation is so bad that a leading animal rights group is calling on the Government to step in to prevent thousands of racehorses from being butchered illegally. In Italy, animals used for racing cannot be eaten and Grassi is adamant that the horses at his course would not suffer this fate.
