Triple Crown viewer boycott? Also … more on the Derby death of Eight Belles
By Gina Spadafori
May 3, 2008
May 4, updates thoughout to add material.
“… Eight Belles showed you her life for our enjoyment today.” — jockey Kent Desormeaux, who won on Big Brown
The Curb My Enthusiasm racing blog sums it all up:
[T]his was one of the worst Kentucky Derby stories ever.
Won by an arrogant trainer with a long history of rules violations and suspensions (dare I say one of the biggest cheats in the game), backed by a Wall Street group that wants to create a horse racing hedge fund, followed by the best potential story of the race — a filly who runs second — having to be euthanized.
The only way this could have been worse would have been if Eight Belles had won the race instead of coming in second, her fatal injury leaving no champion to present the garland of roses to in the winner’s circle.
The rest. Actually, I think that would have been better, in a sick way, if there’d been no horse to blanket with roses. There’d have been no ignoring the on-track tragedy by NBC, which did its very best to keep from showing what was happening on the track after the race. If there’d been no happy celebration to show, the network couldn’t have kept trying to distract viewers from the truth. (A truth that could be read on the face of Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, an NBC commentator who tried his best to play the party line, the tension in his jaw visible as he refused to speculate on what he as someone who’d ridden in thousands of races knew had happened and would happen to Eight Belles.)
Pet Connection BFF Dr. Patty Khuly is more than disgusted at what she didn’t see and won’t watch again. And she suggests that we send the message for reform of the horse-racing industry by refusing to watch the Triple Crown races … and letting the sponsors know why. (I’d also suggest boycotting Derby sponsor Yum! Brands — KFC, PIzza Hut and Taco Bell — but since I wouldn’t eat any of that crap on a bet, that’s not exactly a sacrifice for me. Yuk! Brands is more like it.)
You got it, girlfriend. If Big Brown wins the Triple Crown for the first time in decades, I won’t be watching.
Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins (thanks, Susan) shares her disgust not only with what happened, but also with NBC’s near-refusal to cover what happened, chosing to stay with happy shots of celebrating millionaires while Eight Belles was killed on the track:
The camera cut away from her, but it should have stayed on her. Eight Belles had run herself half to death yesterday, and now the vets were finishing the job as she lay on her side, her beautiful figure a black hump on the track. Horses don’t just fall down like that, you thought as NBC flitted away, cowardlike, from the sickening picture to the more appealing image of the Kentucky Derby victor, Big Brown.
There is no turning away from this fact: Eight Belles killed herself finishing second. She ran with the heart of a locomotive, on champagne-glass ankles for the pleasure of the crowd, the sheiks, oilmen, entrepreneurs, old money from the thousand-acre farms, the handicappers, men in bad sport coats with crumpled sheets full of betting hieroglyphics, the julep-swillers and the ladies in hats the size of boats, and the rest of the people who make up thoroughbred racing. There was no mistaking this fact, too, as she made her stretch run, and the apologists will use it to defend the sport in the coming days: She ran to please herself.
But thoroughbred racing is in a moral crisis, and everyone now knows it.
Pulitzer prize-winning author Jane Smiley is perhaps best known for her novel “A Thousand Acres,” but she also wrote one helluva book in “Horse Heaven.” Here’s what she has written for the New York Times racing blog:
Some people think there should be no horse racing. Certainly, horse racing as a spectator sport is staggering under the weight of these recent horrors — Barbaro, and then this. But, as I’ve written elsewhere, without horse racing, there would be no Thoroughbreds as we know them, and there is nothing like them. The Thoroughbreds I have bred and trained and now ride, modest specimens all, are athletic, game, and eager, full of energy and intelligence. Beautiful, too.
It is not racing per se that is cruel, it is American racing as it has been, on dirt tracks at continuous high speeds, for lots of money. Horses in Europe, who run on the turf, and only exert themselves all out at the end of fairly long races, do not break down as frequently
as American horses on American tracks. American horses bred like European horses, who run in races on the grass, also break down less.American horses have been expected to start racing early and to go fast from the post to the wire, because the people in the grandstands can see the whole race and like plenty of speed. Fortunately, American racing authorities are finally waking up to the industry-wide damage that a high injury-rate does, and American racetracks are in the process of changing their racing surfaces from dirt to something called “polytrack” that is easier on the horses and rather similar to turf.
Although horsemen do complain because the surface is unfamiliar, a friend of a friend I know at Hollywood Park told my friend recently that her job has changed — and her job is doing the paperwork on horses injured at the track. She says that she does 75 to 80 percent less paperwork now — that is the difference, for the better, in the injury rate in Southern California since they switched to polytrack. Churchill Downs is still dirt. The difference in the surface means that breeders have to breed a different style of horse, too — sturdier horses with a different action, like European horses.
Here’s the rest. Of course, this is a bit like what I wrote yesterday, which is no doubt why I’m nodding in agreement.
Jim Squires is a retired newspaper editor who is also a horse breeder, most notably of the Derby winner Monarchos (his book about the experience, “A Horse of a Different Color” is another good read). He also wrote for the NYT’s racing blog:
If human athletes were euthanized on television every time one broke a leg or a neck in an accident, the National Football League, Nascar and Olympic skiing would be out of business.
Unless the thoroughbred industry stops demoralizing the TV audiences with tragic endings to its most important and widely watched races, it will continue to make public enemies and slide further into oblivion.
[...]
[A] lot of the criticism of horse racing is justified. There is something to the complaint that the horses we raise are as not as sound as they used to be. The thoroughbred horse is one of the most fragile creatures on Earth, an animal with a heart and a metabolism too powerful for his bones, digestive and respiratory systems, one too heavy and too strong for the structure supporting it.
That condition has taken decades of evolution. I don’t know what to do about it, except try to breed better ones to reverse the trend. The concern about the safety of our racetracks is also legitimate. People are trying to do something about that. Unfortunately, some of our greatest tracks, like Churchill Downs and Pimlico and Belmont Park, where classic races and Breeders’ Cup challenges are held, have over a century or more of tradition and records based on dirt surfaces. And it is indisputable that more catastrophic injuries to horses occur on dirt surfaces — too often on the pitifully few days that the world is paying attention to our sport.
We can either make our tracks safer or continue to shock and dismay our audience and pay the consequences.
There’s no doubt that American Thoroughbred racing must change or it will lose the few fans it has left (the gamblers it has always cared most about are dying off, with online poker and casino gambling attracting younger gamblers).
Will the industry get it, this time?
An end to the dying tracks that are the end of the road for cheap claiming horses, a mandate for synthetic surfaces on the rest and a ban on racing 2- and 3-year-olds would be a great place to start. Oh yeah, and an end to the Triple Crown as we know it, tradition be damned.
I didn’t realize what I wrote the day before the Derby would end up being so sadly on point. Like Jane Smiley, I won’t stop following racing and I won’t call for an end to it. But I continue to loathe the current emphasis on overproduction and on pushing young horses to the races. And I continue to loathe the long road down through ever-cheaper claiming ranks for so many horses.
Reform is long overdue.
Got more thoughtful reading on this? Post your links in the comments, along with your thoughts.
Wanna place to start? Green But Game, on the “cash out mentality” … The brilliantly named “Take Off That Silly-Assed Hat” blog about fast tracks and big racing days … Superfecta on American vs. European breeding emphasis.
(I don’t think people should be slammed in the face with pictures that make them ill, so I didn’t post this picture of Eight Belles and her shattered legs, moments before her death. Don’t click unless you can bear it, but if you can look, remember this picture and demand changes.)
One last thing: As Christie noted, a great many people seem to think this tragedy is riotously funny, with the female contender being compared to Hillary Clinton (even Time magazine’s Mark Halperin got a yuk out of it, and shame on him). Anyone who posts anything here making political humor (or indeed any joke) out of the death of Eight Belles will be condemned to our banned user file for eternity.
On Hullabaloo, Digby notes:
I realize that a lot of people find the symbolism of this both exciting and hilarious, since Clinton said “bet on the filly.” And maybe the metaphor will be perfectly fulfilled next week as Clinton comes in second and breaks both her metaphorical ankles and is metaphorically euthanized right on the metaphorical track, but the classy thing to do would be to leave it alone. It’s sickening on many levels.
Resist the impulse to be cute about this. The horse died. You’ll like yourself better for it.
Amen.
I agree that something must be done and I also agree that 2 year old racing are too young. Losing Barbaro and now Eight Belles is a something that should not be repeated. We must do something to stop this abuse. Please lets work together to try to stop this waste of talented and wonderful horses. How can we reach more people to stop this abuse?
Comment by Debbie Paul — May 3, 2008 @ 8:32 pm
Such a tragic ending for a beautiful horse all for the entertainment of man…
Comment by Carol V — May 4, 2008 @ 4:16 am
The Americans start their horses too early in almost all disciplines, and the horses break down and are sent to slaughter because of it.
It’s not just thoroughbred racing; Western riders back their horses at two or three, before the horse’s skeleton and musculature are fully formed, and the horse doesn’t last. Europeans don’t back their horses until they’re five or six. Look at how long European dressage horses compete, and how short an American Western horse’s life is, and you’ll see the difference.
Comment by Social Mange — May 4, 2008 @ 5:26 am
As a FORMER national-level equestrienne, I’ve had similar discussions, over the years.
In (classical) English riding, we don’t start horses before they’re three, specifically because bones, like the splint bones, haven’t yet fused. We wait until the horse is mature enough to endure regular training. Other “disciplines” seem to have no compunction about starting babies to work. I’ve always found that a bit tragic. If not physically, at least psychologically.
Many years ago, I remember having an impromptu discussion about horse racing (something to which I’ve always been opposed) with the CEO of a large sporting goods company, at a social affair. I admitted that I was not in favour of horse racing primarily because the horses are started far too young, long before they’re physically mature enough for strenuous work. (…Although, I have other strong objections to the “sport” and other animal uses.) The man countered with his little bit of knowledge. (You know…it’s easy to spot people who don’t have any personal expertise in a subject.) He said something about how his sister works with racehorses and how well they’re treated, blah, blah, blah. I explained about skeletal development, and the profit motives for starting horses so young (and, thus, earning their keep as soon as possible). (It costs a lot to keep a horse for three years, especially if you don’t know if that horse will eventually have any earning ability when it does finally start training.)
We went back and forth like this (amicably, mind you), with me pointing out that horses don’t suddenly slow down at the age of three or four. I reiterated the profit motive for starting horses as young as possible, to get them earning money as soon as possible. The “argument” was essentially over when the man, getting a wee bit defensive by the end, defiantly stated (what I’d already pointed out) that horses are just as fast at four, as they are at two. I replied, “Exactly.” And a light bulb sort of went on over his head. Why not wait until the horse is skeletally (and even psychologically) mature? Oh yeah…that costs money. And horse racing is a business first.
Comment by Marjorie — May 4, 2008 @ 6:42 am
I used to post to a horse board, and was posting there at the time of Barbaro’s tragic injury. You can BET the discussion was heated, and a lot of it centered around folks in the various horse industries not being so quick to throw stones unless they’re pretty secure their own glass houses are stone-proof.
I went back after yesterday’s tragedy to see where the discussions are, and they’re pretty much the same. The example of backing Western horses too early, as well as something called ‘futurities” where youngsters are nominated (costs a lot of $$$) during their babyhood and then shown heavily to justify that investment. Or halter classes where apparently young horses are bulked up fast to look impressive, and often have later problems with those immature skeletal systems not being up to the demands of carrying all that weight. Or “soring” the feet of gaited horses to give the highstepping action that wins in the showring, and the equally barbaric practice of putting mustard in a horse’s rectum to get him to maintain a high tailset.
And dressage is not immune. A practice called “Rollkur” - which STARTED in the European countries - holds the horse in some forced and unnatural positions. A poster on one of the horse boards makes the point that not enough years have gone by since the prevalence of Rollkur in dressage to see the longterm effects on horse structure, health, and comfort. But just because that kind of a gradual painful breakdown is less dramatic than two broken legs on a racetrack in early May doesn’t make it any less significant for the wellbeing of the horses. Here is an article on Rollkur in Dressage:
http://www.sustainabledressage.....hy_not.php
Spend some time cruising around the Sustainable Dressage site - there’s a LOT of stuff there.
In general, people tend to do whatever it takes to win - for the HUMAN to win, that is.
And the animal? All too often, they’re only a disposable means to an ego-driven end. (And yes - I don’t restrict this accusation to those who keep horses - it takes place in EVERY arena where animals are used as part of competetive sport.)
Comment by The OTHER Pat — May 4, 2008 @ 6:56 am
I boycotted the race yesterday and only learned of this tragedy when I looked at the Sunday paper. I just did go to the picture of Eight Belles. I felt I owed it to her. Now I’m typing this with tears running down my face to say that this is ANIMAL CRUELTY plain and simple. If I brought a dog into a vet with that kind of injury, I am sure I would have a lot of explaining to do. Possibly to the police.
Enough is enough. After Barbaro I was done with watching horse racing. I intend to contact the sponsers (whether I actually use the products or not) and tell them they’ve lost my business.
Money talks.
Comment by 2CatMom — May 4, 2008 @ 8:34 am
The news reports I’ve seen state euphemistically that Eight Belles “broke down”, as if to blame the horse.
Let’s use the right terminology. The horse didn’t just “break down”. She was driven mercilessly until her bones shattered.
I agree, it’s animal abuse, and it should be reported that way.
Comment by Mary — May 4, 2008 @ 9:49 am
I’m kind of pissed of at how some of the racing bloggers (is this my week to be pissed off at other bloggers? perhaps I need a vacation) are insisting that just because Churchill Downs on-call veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage and trainer Larry Jones said they didn’t believe the dirt track was the cause of her injuries, that’s proof that it wasn’t. Curb Your Enthusiasm said this would be used in the service of synthetic track “propaganda.”
Both Dr. Bramlage and Mr. Jones may or may not be right, but they’re far from disinterested parties, and just accepting their opinions — neither of which, by the way, was expressed all that certainly, and for which no actual evidence was offered — is irresponsible.
This was a very dark day for horse lovers and also for racing lovers, because circumstances in the racing world have arisen that lend themselves to these kinds of tragedies. Sometimes bad things happen no matter what you do to prevent them, but you have to actually try to prevent them. And if people don’t believe you’ve tried, you’ll lose their support for your sport.
Comment by Christie Keith — May 4, 2008 @ 9:56 am
Just as I refuse to use term “euthanized” for what should be instead called “killing for population control” in shelters, I won’t use “broke down” for “fatally injured.”
“Broke down” in racing terms does not always mean a fatal injury, so when it does, let’s say so.
I’m also really, really tired (already) of seeing mainstream media refer to this as a “freak” accident, suggesting that her death was something that no one could have imagined. (Hmmm … seems I imagined it pretty darn well the day before it happened.)
Breaking both front legs after the finish line may be unusual, but dying for being a racehorse? Not unusual at all.
Reform. Now.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — May 4, 2008 @ 9:59 am
It’s no accident that Digby, as far as I know the only A-list political blogger to speak out against making political hay with Eight Belles’ death, is a woman.
Comment by Christie Keith — May 4, 2008 @ 10:15 am
From the UK newspaper The Guardian:
Link here.
Comment by Christie Keith — May 4, 2008 @ 10:16 am
A major part of what’s wrong with horse racing is the same thing that bedevils the sport on display in the dog show ring: inbreeding. Genetic manipulation by human beings is responsible for the development of the purebred dog as well as that of the thoroughbred horse. I would not wish either to disappear, but I cannot support extremes such as a horses with ankles so fragile as to undermine their very purpose; neither can I accept the astonishing fact that my chosen breed, Scottish terriers, with 20 times the incidence of TCC in other breeds, is the poster child for canine bladder cancer. Breeding programs need to be rethought. Stud books need to be reopened. We have the tools to do this; we only lack the will.
Comment by Lisa — May 4, 2008 @ 11:56 am
Stud books need to be re-opened in the dog world, and we need to re-open them intelligently.
Comment by Christie Keith — May 4, 2008 @ 1:02 pm
“… Eight Belles showed you her life for our enjoyment today.”
Is cursing allowed on your blog?
If not, I’ll just say that on the topic of the photo you provided the link to: I couldn’t look. And thank you for not including that photo in the post.
Comment by slt — May 4, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
I watched my last race yesterday. Both my husband and I are so sick to our stomachs that this poor horse was driven to death. I am just sick about it. And that the TV kept showing that puffy faced ugly little man of a trainer smiling from ear to ear, screaming in glee and hugging everyone in sight. What a sickening disgusting display. I had to turn off the TV. My heart aches for all the abused horses and especially Eight Bells. And I think it is abuse pure and simple. And that fat faced trainer of Big Brown never once said a thing about Eight Bells as she was being killed within eye distance. He just ran around screaming. Oh the things I wish for him I can’t say in public.
Comment by Nicole — May 4, 2008 @ 2:54 pm
Perhaps the general reaction to Eight Belles’ death will result in more track failures and closures, since people seem to be turning away from the sport. It does seem like the industry is in crisis; perhaps this poor little filly’s death may be the tipping point.
Thanks for the heads-up about Halperin at Time magazine. I wrote the editor (Halperin) to tell him he’s an a$$.
Comment by Social Mange — May 4, 2008 @ 3:07 pm
I was sick and after Barbaro, I just can’t find it in my heart to watch this “sport” anymore. I love horse, I love watching them run, but not if this is the price.
And as for dogs, what they’ve done to my breed, the German Shepherd is a crime. Dogs who gait unnaturally with their hocks on the ground and a total lack of structure in the hind end. Add to that all the hereditary health problems. It’s just tragic. I can’t even watch these dog in the breed ring anymore.
Comment by Dog Lover — May 4, 2008 @ 3:26 pm
I grew into adolescence with the typical horse infatuation, so when I was in the 7th grade my first real research report was on horse racing.
That was a long, long, time ago and things haven’t changed. I haven’t been able to support horse racing ever since I learned so long ago about the sport. The drugs, the racing of undeveloped young bodies. I don’t watch Olympic gymnastics for the same reason. I can’t stomach the injuries on athletes that are competing too early.
Comment by C.L.H — May 4, 2008 @ 3:37 pm
Though there have been three high-profile tragedies in the past three years, this is the first such occurrence at the Kentucky Derby (a dirt track) in 41 years. We need to be very careful in making assumptions about what happened, or we risk providing a solution that does more harm than good. I only know one person in the horse racing industry personally, and she is the biggest animal lover I’ve ever known. While I know horse racing has a dark underbelly, I believe that most of the people involved in the industry feel this tragedy much more deeply than those of us on the outside.
Comment by Tim — May 4, 2008 @ 7:48 pm
With all due respect, Tim, the “people in the industry” who were on camera on NBC yesterday really didn’t look like they gave a crap.
One exception: the track vet looked a bit grave as he delivered the bad news.
The problem’s the breeding, not the track. And a lot of folks were talking about that even before Saturday.
http://www.npr.org/templates/s.....d=90142692
Comment by LauraL — May 4, 2008 @ 8:17 pm
I can’t believe people are making jokes about this.
I don’t know enough about horses to know what needs to be done, but thank you for educating me.
Comment by Randi — May 4, 2008 @ 8:53 pm
I seem to recall a report from at least a decade ago, where an investigative journalist looked into the number of equine track deaths, and found the figures weren’t forthcoming from the industry. They desperately guarded that information, as it’s bad for business. I don’t recall the precise figures the investigator uncovered, but it was much higher than industry folks ever let on. That was at least a decade ago. Whether it’s better or worse now, I can’t say. But, frankly, one death of this sort is too many.
I’ve always had a disdain for horseracing, and years ago I used to say,
“There’s absolutely no reason a horse should break its leg running in a straight line. With the frequency with which it happens (and it happens more than anyone seems to be willing to acknowledge), it tends to demonstrate there’s something fundamentally wrong with what’s being done to young Thoroughbreds in that industry. Whether it’s the Throughbred’s conformation, early strenuous training, or some other relevant factor, the mere fact that horses are shattering their legs while running in a straight line on a track is the evidence of a problem that needs to be addressed.”
I was an active competitor in equestrian sports in the ‘70’s & ‘80’s. I showed mostly jumper, but have ample experience in many fields, including dressage, 3-day, vaulting, etc. Not once did I witness or hear about a horse in these fields breaking a cannon bone while galloping in a straight line on flat terrain. There were some tragedies I heard about, over the years. But they were almost exclusively freak accidents of collision or pulled tendons/muscles, rather than a fundamental breakdown of a young horse’s skeleton, over training or outright abuse. The worst injuries I personally witnessed, befell the riders…which is as it should be.
Comment by Marjorie — May 4, 2008 @ 8:57 pm
I continue to mourn for the loss of Eight Belles. Why was she left alone to die why was not the owner or the trainer notified before she was killed? Are you telling me they had crap to kill her but no pain medication to stabilize her until the owner or trainer got there? And why in Hades did the jockey leave her? All of this makes no sense to me and it pisses me off. Eight Belles will go out as an icon of this time bringing new and prosperous light to filly horse racing and the Kentucky Oaks and the suggestion that filly’s should not run in the Kentucky Derby is absurd! She would have won that race but her ankles were bothering her before she hit the finish line. Oh Eight Belles the epitome of girl power your death will not be in vain and I cannot imagine what you felt dying alone and I cannot imagine what your owner or trainer or Proud Spell must be feeling right now because I am filled with grief and most of it knowing you died alone. And I will never know I guess why the jockey left you and why in the world someone did not wait for your owner or trainer to get there. I don’t know Eight Belles I don’t know. Rest in Peace you magnificent athlete your death will not be in vain!
Comment by Nandi — May 4, 2008 @ 9:28 pm
Nandi … she was so hopelessly, unfixably and fatally injured and in such pain the veterinarian euthanized her immediately out of mercy. She couldn’t even stand up. He SHOULDN’T have waited, and there isn’t a pain med made that could have cut through her agony. And she wasn’t alone … she was surrounded by outriders, at least one veterinarian, the horse ambulance staffers …
The jockey was standing beside her as she died, holding his saddle and watching her gravely as the veterinarian (holding the euthanasia vial, with its unmistakable pink liquid) put her down, and this is documented in the Associated Press photo that was widely used and appeared, among other places, across the entire front page of the New York Times sports section on Sunday. (She didn’t hardly know him anyway.) I know PETA wants to make him one of the villains, but I sincerely doubt he could have changed anything.
In the crowds at Churchill it would have taken forever for her trainer to get there.
What happened AFTER she was injured was absolutely right for her — a quick end to her suffering.
It’s the WHY this happened that we’re questioning … and why it happens every day in less public places to racehorses you don’t know. And we want it to happen less frequently. This is an industry in dire need of reform, to save the lives of horses and jockeys. (Although it can NEVER be made completely safe for either.)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — May 5, 2008 @ 6:29 am
In the mid-70’s i went to the track in Shreveport, La (don’t recall its name now). Watched a couple of races then while races were still going on walked over to the area where the horses are stabled at the end of the track so to speak. We looked up as a race completed everyone yelling happy cheering, then a horse went down. It was awful. Will always remember it. They euthanized the horse just as they did with Eight Belles. A man working at the track came over to us and the only thing I remember him saying was that it happened more than most people knew. I have never been to a race since and I when I watch a race on TV as I did on Saturday I do so with my breath held. NBC should be whipped themselves for not showing the public what happened. They had the footage they could have shown it after all of the “happy day” activities took place. It is important that it be shown so that reform can begin to take place.
Comment by Samie — May 5, 2008 @ 7:57 am
Christie: I agree with your take on the racing blogger front—and on the toe-the-linedom of Dr. Bramlage and his ilk. I don’t see why Dr. Bramlage would be willing to make any firm statements as to the cause of the injury when he clearly stated (in the NYT piece) that he’d never seen an injury like Eight Belle’s occur the way it did.
Further, none of this idle speculation sould be allowed to distract from the extreme safety concerns the industry has failed to address.
Perhaps we need to look to the English model to see how the birthplace of the sport of kings has refused to go the way of the American model in its unsafe tracks and immature athletes.
Comment by Dr. Patty Khuly — May 5, 2008 @ 8:37 am
Every year some 800 horses are destroyed due to injuries suffered at the track. I’m all for banning this cruel and barbaric “sport” and I used to enjoy a good race. Never again. By the way, in Europe they have whipping rules. They also breed for less fragile horses.
Comment by Linda — May 5, 2008 @ 9:04 am
I just said to a friend who really likes to celebrate Derby day that I am done with the Derby and other Triple Crown horse races - the only ones I have ever watched anyhow. I am ignorant of most of the industry problems but am learning quickly here! I watched the NBC coverage for some sign that anyone cared about what was happening. The spokesman for the winners made a quick remark of sympathy - but I was surprised at how little coverage there was of such a terrible tragedy. It was bizarre. I had already seen the photo of Eight Belles’ broken legs but I looked again today. Just to be aware of her suffering…just minutes after warming my heart with her second-place finish.
Comment by Emily in Ohio — May 5, 2008 @ 10:59 am
I think I understand why they had to kill her, I think, but I do not understand why Eight Belles was killed before her owner or trainer was notified. Who are these track vets? Vet gods? She died alone and she did not have to. We can put a man on the moon but we cannot give a horse something for pain until the owner could get there which would have been in a matter of minutes? It ain’t right to kill an animal without the consent of the owner! Does anyone realize it was not more than 3 minutes before she went down and then was killed? Darn how scared she must have been could she had not seen one familiar face before her soul departed this world? Rest in peace Eight Belles.
Comment by Nandi — May 6, 2008 @ 1:59 pm
Nandi, I broke my leg at the ankle four years ago. It wasn’t just broken, it was pulverized. The ankle looked like jello. Before I got any pain medication (and that was a good 30 minutes after I broke it) I was in the worst pain of my life. It was truly excruciating. When I walked on it, it crunched. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone human or animal. What they did for Eight Belles was the only thing they could have done and it was good that they did it as soon as they did. It took me about 5 minutes to start feeling the pain because of the shock. Small comfort that it is, Eight Belles may have still been in shock and was not feeling the full intensity of the pain by the time they gave her the injection. And just from personal experience, it took WAY TOO LONG for the morphine to kick in for me. I have no idea how long it takes for painkillers to kick in for an equine patient. They just didn’t have that kind of time to wait. They spent millions on Barbaro trying to put him back together and his injuries were nowhere near as severe. There was just nothing else to do. I would be willing to bet that the men who were with her were talking to her all the way through. There’s no way they could be human if they weren’t.
Comment by C.L.H. — May 6, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
Actually, the best thing they could have done for Eight Belles was not to have raced her until she was four or five.
Comment by C.L.H. — May 6, 2008 @ 3:20 pm
Nandi, I know you’re upset. We all are. But she did NOT die alone. There were people with her, talking to her and patting her. Her jockey stayed with her until the end. It may even be that her groom — the person she knew best — might have been one of the people in the picture that showed her at the end.
Waiting for her trainer under the circumstances would have been cruel. She barely knew her owners from a fence post, so no point waiting for them. There was nothing that could have been done for her at that point, every veterinarian in the world would have agreed.
The track veterinarian does not enjoy what he had to do, and if he could have avoided doing it, he would have. But he did was was best for her.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — May 6, 2008 @ 3:36 pm
How about cutting the bull and facing reality?
http://bleacherreport.com/arti.....red-Racing
It cannot be reformed. There is nothing left but an dissipate illusion.
[WARNING NOTE FROM GINA: THE LINK SHOWS A PICTURE OF EIGHT BELLES WITH HER INJURIES.]
Comment by P.L. — May 8, 2008 @ 12:42 am
WARNING: The link above shows an image of Eight Belles going down.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — May 8, 2008 @ 5:53 am
THANK YOU for that warning Pat.
Comment by slt — May 8, 2008 @ 5:55 am
Yikes … and that’s the picture I previously hid with a warning, too.
Thanks, Pat.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — May 8, 2008 @ 5:58 am
Can you insert a warning BEFORE P.L.’s post instead of after (as well as before the other post I tagged on another thread?) I clicked on - and saw - both before I knew. I’ve been trying to avoid images of Eight Belles (the images of Barbaro still haunt me) and I don’t want anyone else getting “surprised” by clicking on links and finding these images there.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — May 8, 2008 @ 6:11 am
Done.
Having worked in a newsroom for many years, I am very familiar with debates over what photos to show and how and where to show them. There’s an argument that you have to see to understand, and that it’s not right to hide the truth. It’s just my opinion, but I came up on the losing side of many arguments, advocating for NOT using certain pictures, especially with regard to human tragedies, dead bodies after disasters, etc. (I still remember a couple of pictures from the Oklahoma City bombing that we at the Sacramento Bee did not use, and they would have made you ill.)
Everything is available on the Internet now, but in the “old days” to see pictures like these you had to watch them come over the machines in the newsrooms. I’m not sure that’s right, either, which is why I think a warning before clicking on a link is the right way to go.
In the case of Eight Belles, I believe people who want to slap you in the face with that picture are trying to shock you into agreeing with their point of view. I saw that picture on day one, along with the overhead video of her breaking her legs and pitching her jockey forward into the hard dirt. I wanted to see, and I wanted to know and understand, not rely on what a third party with one agenda or another wants me to believe.
I don’t personally shy away from much of anything — again, that’s probably because of having been a reporter and an editor, and seeing a lot — but I perhaps because words are what I do I believe that we should look at the issues and debate them, not use images to shock people into agreeing with us. The choice to see the worst should be yours.
The debate continues.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — May 8, 2008 @ 6:25 am