Sadly, the bell tolled for Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby

Last year, Barbaro was being hailed as the latest horse with a legitimate shot at winning the Triple Crown since Affirmed won it in 1978. And, after winning the Kentucky Derby by one of the largest margins in history, he had everyone in the world of horse racing salivating at the prospect.

Therefore, I understood the disappointment his owners and fans felt when Barbaro pulled up lame, after shattering the bones around the ankle of his right hind leg, at the start of the Preakness Stakes (the second of the Triple Crown races). What I did not appreciate, however, was the way his owners prolonged Barbaro's misery for eight months by having vets undertake all kinds of extraordinary means to rehabilitate his fatal injuries. And here, in part, is how I expressed my outrage:

Regardless of the fleeting emotional interest most people had in seeing Barbaro survive this fatal injury, I suspect his owners were so desperate to rehabilitate him because they felt he would become the biggest (fee-generating) farm stud in history. This, notwithstanding their post-mortem rationalization that the extraordinary fight to save Barbaro’s life will lead to new advances in equine medicine; especially since such advances will only make horses more durable for man's sporting pleasure.

The sport of kings, indeed; but so is the barbaric sport of fox hunting....

But I would like the readers who called me an uninformed cynic after I published this article to consider what happened on Saturday.

Because, just like Barbaro, Eight Belles pulled up lame, after breaking both front ankles, at the Kentucky Derby. However, unlike Barbaro, she was put out of her misery right on the spot!

Why? The reason, I submit, is that she did not have the potential to generate much income for her owners off the track. Therefore, they had no vested interest in trying to save her….

Meanwhile, those idiots from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are blaming Eight Belles’s little Panamanian jockey, Gabriel Saez, for the sins of this sport. But instead of calling for Saez to be suspended, PETA should be demanding far greater scrutiny into the breeding methods of race horses.

After all, it’s one thing to race horses in their natural state. It’s quite another, however, to inject them with so many pharmaceuticals to make them bigger, stronger and faster that their skinny legs cannot support their unnatural body mass….

Farewell Eight Belles

NOTE: For the record, Big Brown won the race in such commanding fashion on Saturday that he's now being hailed the way Barbaro was last year: as the latest horse with a legitimate shot at winning the elusive Triple Crown….

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