©By Brian Bohannon, AP

Churchill Downs personnel try to hold down Eight Belles after the filly collapsed with two broken front ankles. Seven minutes after the end of the race, the Kentucky Derby's second-place finisher was euthanized.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is calling for jockey Gabriel Saez, who rode Eight Belles to second place at the Kentucky Derby only to see her break her front legs and be euthanized on the track, to be suspended from horse racing. From PETA's blog:

This young filly's death may have been humane, but the race sure wasn't. PETA is calling for the immediate suspension of jockey Gabriel Saez-who whipped Eight Belles mercilessly as she came down the final stretch, no doubt in agony from two front legs that were about to snap.

But the veterinarian on the scene, Dr. Larry Bramlage, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he takes issue with PETA's approach, and that there's no evidence that Eight Belles was in agony as she ran down the final stretch.

According to Bramiage, the injury rate for racehorses is 1.6 per 1,000. He adds, "We don't want to accept even that, but horses love to race and are the most pampered of all athletes. I would not put horse racing in the cruel category."

©Getty Images

Jockey Gabriel Saez, who rode Eight Belles to second place at the Kentucky Derby only to see her break her front legs and be euthanized on the track

NBC made correct call to not air Eight Belles' agony

By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY

NBC producer Sam Flood says it wasn't an accident that the network's Kentucky Derby coverage didn't show runner-up Eight Belles' final moments Saturday.

Flood, in a Sunday interview, said he and his colleagues in NBC's production truck had close-ups of the injured filly it could have chosen to show: "She was writhing. It was gruesome. I elected not to go to it for the simple reason it's not something I'd like my wife or children at home to see."

That was the correct call, albeit the safe one. While showing the horse's agony would have injected more reality into coverage that included a bit too much celebration of funny hats and rich guys, it's good NBC decided Eight Belles' pain wasn't something that had to be shown to everyone.

Still, it would have been helpful to have seen more angles on Eight Belles stumbling, after finishing the race. That might have explained why it happened. NBC aired a replay from its overhead blimp shot. But, says Flood, Eight Belles wasn't one of the eight horses that NBC had chosen for isolated camera coverage and, with cameras also routinely pointed at the winner after races, "replay-wise, we had nothing." Online, NBC posted about 10 seconds of aerial footage showing the filly falling down.

Two years ago, Preakness viewers saw more of what eventually proved to be a fatal injury to Barbaro. But, notes Flood, that coverage was justified because the breakdown came during the race to a heavily-hyped super horse and the injury didn't seem fatal - "the horse lived for almost a year," he said.

Otherwise, NBC's Derby coverage stuck to the usual formula, like its Olympic coverage: Storytelling to engage viewers with a sport they rarely otherwise watch.

But NBC also did a good job in waiting to report facts, rather about speculating, about Eight Belles. And, even in a world you might be able to watch literally anything online, it's nice to see restraint. Says Flood of the footage NBC didn't show: "It was true agony. You'd never do that to an audience."

Eight Belles' death shows dark side of horse racing

Well, I don't know about you, but I sure won't watch the Preakness the same way now. Big Brown will go for the second leg of the Triple Crown, but my thoughts will be with the filly who should be challenging him.

Eight Belles is dead. She broke two ankles after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby, and since horses can't live after that kind of injury (for various reasons), she was euthanized on the track.

Eight Belles is dead. It is strangely appropriate that the second-place finisher is the one who died.

If Big Brown had broken his ankles after winning, he would have been the biggest story in America this morning. There would be many calls to rethink the sport of horse racing. There would be a national conversation about whether horse racing is a worthy sporting endeavor or unfit for a civilized society.

If a horse had broken his ankles after finishing last, it would have been one paragraph in newspaper stories - a footnote. Fans would not have paid much attention, because it would be easy to separate the death from the reason we watch the Kentucky Derby - to see who wins.

But when the second-place finisher breaks down and must be euthanized on the track, it becomes a nasty little thought that you can't get out of your head. You might just find yourself blocking it out and concentrating on the winner, but that will only bring guilt.

Why? Why do we put racehorses at risk for our own amusement? Where do we draw the line? I have done zero polling on this issue, but I suspect most people would agree with this statement:

It's OK to train horses to race but not OK to train dogs to fight, because the frequency of death and pain is much lower in horse racing.

Heck, that's how I have long felt. But what is an acceptable fatality rate? If Churchill Downs goes to an increasingly popular synthetic racing surface, which is believed to reduce injuries, will we feel better because we're doing something?

According to The New York Times, "Dr. Mary Scollay, a veterinarian at Calder Race Course, organized an equine injury reporting system for more than 30 tracks and has found that fatality rates have been lower on synthetic surfaces: 1.47 fatalities per 1,000 starts for synthetic surfaces against 2.03 per 1,000 for dirt tracks."

This is not just about horse racing. It cuts to the heart of our relationship with animals. It is a relationship that, for most of us, is steeped in denial.

Hunters love deer but also love to kill them. Chick-Fil-A cannily uses a cow as its spokesman - eat some chicken and you'll save the big lug. The quintessential American scene is the backyard barbecue, with slices of cow on the grill and the family dog playing catch. I'm not judging - I have two cats and eat meat. But try making sense of any of this.

Last summer, I joined most of the Western world in excoriating Michael Vick for his dogfighting operation. My feelings on Vick haven't changed. But I wonder, more than ever, about the level of outrage. Did we call Vick a thug so we would feel superior?

There is only one other major sport where we understand that the participants are risking death. That, of course, is auto racing, and it brings its own brand of denial. While we subconsciously tell ourselves that racehorses are just animals, we also tell ourselves that race-car drivers have a choice. They don't have to race. They choose to. It is a risk they are willing to take, and it seems almost un-American to try to stop them.

With horse racing, we pretend that it is perfectly normal for a horse to sprint 1¼ miles down a track with a jockey on her back and a whip in the jockey's hand.

In our minds, racehorses fall somewhere between Michael Vick's dogs and our own pets. They are there to entertain, but we fall in love with the best of them.

And when Barbaro or Eight Belles dies, we tell ourselves that nothing could have been done. The truth is that if nothing had been done, if no race had been held, then those horses would have lived.

We don't like to admit that. We'd prefer to think that these deaths are part of life instead of just a part of racing. We say that Eight Belles was "euthanized," as though we did her a favor.

But on the official Web site of the Kentucky Derby, the death of Eight Belles was neatly squeezed into a single sentence, in the fifth paragraph of a story about Big Brown's historic win.

Some favor.

Race Illustrates Brutal Side of Sport

By WILLIAM C. RHODEN
Published: May 4, 2008

Louisville, Ky.

Why do we keep giving thoroughbred horse racing a pass? Is it the tradition? The millions upon millions invested in the betting?

Why isn't there more pressure to put the sport of kings under the umbrella of animal cruelty?

The sport is at least as inhumane as greyhound racing and only a couple of steps removed from animal fighting.

Is it the fact that horse racing is imbedded in the American fabric? And the Triple Crown is a nationally televised spectacle? Or is it the fact that death on the track is rarely seen by a mainstream television audience?

The sentiment was summed up by Dr. Larry Bramlage on Saturday when, asked about fillies racing against colts, he said, "One death is not an epidemic."

But this isn't about one death. This is about the nature of a sport that routinely grinds up young horses.

A national audience was exposed to the bittersweet experience of a tremendous victory by Big Brown and - moments later - the stunning news that Eight Belles had been euthanized. As we watched Big Brown's owner celebrate the unmitigated joy of winning the Derby, we watched Bramlage describe the details of Eight Belles's horrible death: She had completed the race, finishing a heroic second to Big Brown. She was around the turn at the start of the backstretch when her front ankles collapsed.

Bramlage described the sickening image of what had happened: a condylar fracture on the left side and the left front that opened the skin, went through it and was contaminated.

"She didn't have a front leg to stand on to be splinted and hauled off in the ambulance, so she was immediately euthanized," Bramlage said.

And that was that.

After the race, Larry Jones, Eight Belles's trainer, choked back tears as he answered questions about the filly's death. But even through the grief, Jones instinctively toed the industry line about racing. He discounted the notion - and veiled criticism - that the dirt surface might have contributed to her death. He also refused to concede the point that horse racing is an extremely dangerous sport, saying that these types of injuries occur in any sport.

Within the racing industry, Eight Belles was a tragic but glorious casualty. The industry is in denial: racing grinds up horses, and we dress up the sport with large hats, mint juleps and string bands.

Why do we refuse to put the brutal game of racing in the realm of mistreatment of animals? At what point do we at least raise the question about the efficacy of thousand-pound horses racing at full throttle on spindly legs?

This is bullfighting.

Eight Belles was another victim of a brutal sport that is carried, literally, on the backs of horses. Horsemen like to talk about their thoroughbreds and how they were born to run and live to run. The reality is that they are made to run, forced to run for profits they never see.

On Saturday, it was Eight Belles in Louisville. Two years ago, it was Barbaro in Baltimore, with a misstep at the Preakness. And who knows how many horses die anonymous deaths? Eight Belles, we'll write, was merely the casualty of a brutal game.

But one death is too many. The miracle of the sport of kings is that there aren't more. But how many more do we need?

Before Saturday's race, I walked over to the stable where Michael Matz was preparing Visionaire for the Derby. Matz was the trainer of Barbaro, the superhorse who won here in 2006 and took that fatal misstep two weeks later at the Preakness. On Friday, one of Matz's horses, Chelokee, sustained a condylar fracture of the cannon bone in his right front leg during the running of the Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs.

The initial report was that the injury was of the same nature as Barbaro's, and that Chelokee had a fractured ankle. The reports were inaccurate, but I wondered what thoughts had gone through Matz's mind.

"I just ran out there to see how he was doing," he said. Barbaro hadn't crossed his mind, he said, just this horse at this time. That was all. Matz talked briefly about Barbaro, about why the image remains so fresh in our minds. Then he excused himself. "I have to get my horse ready for this race," he said.

John Stephens broke in Barbaro and Visionaire when they were yearlings. Stephens was in Baltimore when Barbaro took the misstep. That experience, he said, has tempered, if not changed, his perspective on horse racing.

"I want my horse to win - I'm not going to kid you," he said. "But not at all costs. I don't want any horse to get injured. I want everyone to have a good trip. I want everybody to come back home."

The words haunted me as I left the stable and echoed as I saw Eight Belles in a heap. Thoroughbred racing is a brutal sport. Why do we keep giving it a pass?

E-mail: wcr@nytimes.com

Eight Belles to take on 19 boys in Kentucky Derby
5 days ago

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - There will be girl power in the 134th Kentucky Derby, with filly Eight Belles set to take on 19 boys Saturday.

Trainer Larry Jones officially entered Eight Belles in the Derby on Wednesday, ending speculation that she might run in the Derby-eve Kentucky Oaks for fillies.

"I'm willing to take a shot," owner Rick Porter said. "I know a lot of people like to see a filly run. I'm always for the underdog, so I'm making myself a good underdog."

Eight Belles is on a four-race winning streak, and in nine career starts has been worse than third only once. She'll be ridden by Gabriel Saez, a Derby rookie.

"We feel after looking at the numbers and the way she's training, she fits right in," Porter said.

A filly hasn't run in the Derby since 1999, when Excellent Meeting finished fifth and Three Ring was 19th. Only three have won the race, with Winning Colors the last to do so in 1988.

In all, 38 fillies have attempted the Derby, and six of them were sent off as post-time favourites. Eight Belles has never previously tested herself against male horses.

"It could be good or bad. If it all works, they are going to say I'm smart," Jones said. "If it don't, they are going to say that dumb cowboy finally did goof it up. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you're not in 'em, you can't win 'em."

Eight Belles is named for a home in Port Clyde, Maine, where famed painter Andrew Wyeth lives in the summer residence built by his father, according to Porter.

Videos of Eight Belles