Interesting discussion - thanks for all the contributions.
I think what is patently clear is that there is very little communication / understanding across the various facets of the game. This is not a criticism - merely an observation.
Jockeys are not allowed to punt (officially anyway), so are therefore seldom in the shoes of the punter.
Punters do not ride horses, so it's pretty difficult for them to understand the difficulties and dangers.
Trainers have a different perspective again, as do breeders, as do owners. Sometimes these different spheres cross over and sometimes they don't. So some people will have more of an understanding of certain aspects of the game than others. That's just a fact.
Years ago, it was standard to use leather bridles, reins, saddles, stirrup leathers etc. Leather is a natural substance and can tear, break, rot, etc causing failure during a race (I recall many incidents of reins breaking during races back in the day). I ride 'normal' horses and can tell you that breaking a rein is not a lot of fun even at slow speeds.
However, the reason for using leather is that sometimes a rider's safety DEPENDS on things breaking - if you get caught in any piece of kit, you pray like hell that it WILL break so that you can fall free of the horse - otherwise you get dragged along behind and that opens up a whole new world of pain and interesting options for injuring yourself.
These days the majority of bridles are synthetic (the colourful Wintec bridles which are made of some sort of webbing 'core' coated in plastic so that they are easy to clean). This reduces the risk of things breaking. Which is good and bad, but it seems people have opted for the reliability option.
Another bit of kit that has changed on bridles is the bits used. In days gone by, a lot of trainers favoured straight rubber bar snaffles (imagine a 5 inch sausage made out of rubber with a ring on either end for the bridle & reins to attach to). I've seen those break mid-gallop and mid-race. Not fun. These days most folks use metal bits. Which can also fatigue and fail. Again, it's rare, but it can happen.
Next piece of kit is the saddle. Which is effectively a bit of saddle shaped synthetic material that you're trying to secure to a moving, sweaty barrel so that a jockey can balance on top. Saddles are held in place with an elasticated girth (which attaches on either side of the saddle) and are usually secured with a second surcingle which goes over the top of the saddle and girth and right around the horse. So now you've got something that sits more or less like a ring on your finger that can effectively still rotate around the barrel.
Another point is that racing saddles are really only platforms to attach stirrup hooks and stirrups to and do not really have much in the way of a tree. A tree is a framework inside a saddle that gives it shape and should, in theory, fit to the contours of the horse's back. A correctly fitting saddle will by virtue of design, also sit better. Obviously racing saddles are designed to go onto any sort of horse - from a small skinny baby to a big broad colt, so you can more or less throw saddle fit out of the window - it does not apply (some horses have narrow spines, some broad spines, etc and there is a 'channel' down the middle of the saddle to allow space for the spine. If you have a narrow channel, you pinch the horse's spine. If you have a wide channel, you risk the saddle sitting too low and actually putting all that weight directly onto the spine - not comfortable - or being able to wiggle side to side - also not comfortable.
Designs differ depending what what you buy and who you buy from, but basically they're trying to produce a one size fits all type of product. And as we all know, if you try to please everyone, you usually end up pleasing no-one. But hey, racehorses don't wear racing saddles for very long, so what the heck.
Next let's consider the girth. There is quite a bit of debate as to how tight is too tight. You want it tight enough to hold the saddle in place (obviously), but also remember that those lungs run longitudinally along either side of the barrel of the horse and a horse needs to breathe in order to run.
Breast plates or breast girths as they are occasionally called attach either side of the girth and run horizontally around the front of the horse. They usually come with a handy neck strap type arrangement built in which is a handy additional 'handle' (alternatively some jockeys simply use their own neck straps (any sort of strap that can go around the horse's neck). A breast plate basically tries to stop the saddle sliding backwards. But as Chip pointed out, they are not mandatory.
Then you need to factor in stirrup leathers (the straps that attach to the saddle and from which the stirrups are suspended) and of course the stirrups themselves.
I'm probably forgetting one or two things, but basically, there are quite a few things that can break, malfunction, not quite hitch through properly, etc. It happens. The world isn't perfect. People are human. Things break. But everything has to be checked and / or replaced regularly to make sure that it's in good working order.
Because the bottom line (as with anything to do with horses) is safety.
Whether there was any monkey business in the race in question will no doubt continue to be debated, but personally I would think are easier ways to make a few bucks than risking ones neck !
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