“Triumph and tragedy” was how the commentators described this Derby day. Big Brown showed us, all right. With all the speed in the field, and his far-outside starting position, a bad start would have upped the ante for him. As it was, he had a perfect trip and won going away. After the gallop-out, he had enough gas left to frisk a little and dump his jockey.
A solid second was the filly, Eight Belles, who ran her heart out and opened several lengths between herself and the 3rd place horse. She looked okay at the finish — though in the overhead blimp shot, you could see her bear to the outside after that. So something may have started to go wrong. In the gallop-out, she rounded the clubhouse turn and slowed, then went down. Diagnosis: both front ankles broken. The track vet said he’d never seen an injury like this occurring after the finish.
Both faces of the sport in one race. With Churchill Downs holding onto its dirt track, instead of going synthetic, the controversies will go on. But in my humble opinion, they are not going to stop the tragedies by fixing the tracks. They need to fix the horse. The breed has gotten too inbred, and the bottom line of inbreeding is fragile bone. You can’t screw with Mother Nature this way. – Patricia Nell Warren
on May 4th, 2008 at 12:37 AM
I know you love the sport, Patricia, but I do wish we could see the end of it until they figure out how to stop this madness. Horses breaking down after a race and putting them to death? Your insight into the inbreeding is amazing. If that’s the culprit, stop the death-marches until it’s fixed. I won’t watch a horse race again until they do.
on May 4th, 2008 at 11:11 AM
I don’t know a great deal about horse racing, but it seems that it was dying out, at least on a local level, until states started adding casino gambling. That revenue is keeping it going.
on May 4th, 2008 at 4:36 PM
Cyd>> You really think horse racing should be banned for the time being? How would you know when it’s OK to start up again?
on May 4th, 2008 at 10:53 PM
Yeah, I do. It is cruel punishment to these animals to subject them to dangerous races that have a recent greater result in death. How to know when it’s OK to start again? I don’t know. Maybe it shouldn’t. What I do know as that too many horses are being killed by people in this sport, and it has to stop.
on May 5th, 2008 at 3:32 PM
I think they can also look at not racing as 2-year-olds. Their legs are still building strength, and some growth plates still forming. Also, breeders are breeding only for speed, and not paying attention to bone structure. A long time ago, these horses needed to be more than just race horses, with solid bones and hooves. Now, they just have to be the fastest in a couple of races.
on May 5th, 2008 at 7:25 PM
Some of the sports comments I’ve read/heard were going on and on about how cruel the sport is (comparing it to dog fighting) and how many horses are put down, but in my very casual interest in horse racing I haven’t heard of a lot of incidents like this. The horses are not being asked to do anything unnnatural (they’re just running) and I don’t think there is excessive danger in racing (as opposed to some of the rodeo sports like chuck wagon racing; and not to mention the commonplace death of calfs in calf roping, and of course bullfighting, where the point of the sport is the tortured death of an animal). I would certainly buy the argument that breeding is making the horses more fragile. But I have no problem with horse racing as a sport.