CALLOW End racehorse owner Jim Lewis and his wife Jennifer are still trying to come to terms with the death of Marching Song.

The five-year-old gelding collapsed at Newbury on Saturday along with Fenix Two amid fears that live underground cables electrocuted the pair.

The two horses, who were believed to be wearing steel horseshoes, were being taken through the parade ring at Newbury ahead of the first race when they fell to the ground and died.

Early indications suggested an unused cable had become live after maintenance work at the track.

With the post-mortems on both horses being carried out today at the University of Liverpool, Lewis, whose wife Jennifer had a quarter share in Marching Song, said it was too early to speculate on what had happened at Newbury.

This is not the first time Lewis has suffered a tragic loss on a course as his three-time Gold Cup winner Best Mate dropped dead of a heart attack during a race at Exeter five years ago.

“We are all still devastated, particularly my wife as this was her first racehorse,” said Lewis, who was on holiday with Jennifer in the Yorkshire Dales at the weekend.

“We are just trying to help each other through the best we can after what has been a tragic weekend.

“There was no doubt that Marching Song was a very promising horse and we were all looking forward to seeing him progress.”

Andy Turnell, the horse’s trainer, said: “It looks like the horses have been electrocuted. My fellow seemed perfectly all right and I was about to leg him up but he just went straight down.”

Graham Thorner, another of Marching Song’s part-owners, said: “To a layman with no evidence, you would say it was electrical.

“The lad who was with him was saying, ‘I’m getting an electric shock off this horse’.”

Worcester Racecourse hospitality manager Jenny Cheshire described Saturday’s events as very tragic.

“This was an awful situation for anyone,” she said. “Our hearts go out to Jim and his wife Jennifer.

“They are very good friends of the course and we are all extremely sorry for what has happened to them.”

Clerk of the course at Pitchcroft, Fergus Cameron, said there were no plans at this stage to carry out any investigation work at Worcester Racecourse.

Cameron, like the rest of the racing community, is awaiting the outcome of the investigations at Newbury.

“It was the most awful tragedy that happened on Saturday,” Cameron said. “At this stage, we just don’t know what happened.

“There are not any plans for us to carry out any investigation work at the Worcester course at the moment.

“We do not return to racing until May 8 and we are getting the ground ready.”