LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A day after his prize filly Eight Belles had been euthanized shortly after the finish of the Kentucky Derby, her trainer, Larry Jones, wasn't ready to blame the sport of thoroughbred racing for her death.
"This didn't happen in the race," Jones said. "Horses in horse shows gallop faster than she was going. This is a kind sport to horses. I came out of rodeo - and I'm not saying bad things about rodeo - but there are other sports that are much harder on animals than racing. I'm proud to be a part of this game."
But after Eight Belles fractured both front ankles more than a quarter-mile after crossing the finish line in second place in the 134th Kentucky Derby, it is difficult to ignore that, in the past three years, thoroughbred racing has lost three standouts to catastrophic injuries sustained in premier events.
Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro shattered a front leg in the 2006 Preakness and eight months later was euthanized because of complications from laminitis.
In October at the Breeders' Cup at Monmouth Park, N.J., George Washington, the two-time European champion, who was running on dirt for the second time and in mud for the first time, had to be euthanized on the track after suffering multiple fractures in a front leg.
"I don't know that Eight Belles' injury continues the idea of a trend," said Dr. Larry Bramlage, the veterinarian on call for the American Association of Equine Practitioners, who was at each of the three races. "This injury was uncommon. But these are horses going as fast as any in the country at anytime during the year. But this race was over, and she was riding out. She was all the way around the turn going into the backstretch when it happened."
No one knows how the injury to Eight Belles happened. Owner Rick Porter has asked for an autopsy to figure it out. The horse will then be cremated, and Jones said her ashes would be returned to the owner's new barn at Fair Hill or possibly buried here at Churchill Downs.
"It's amazing it doesn't happen more often," trainer Nick Zito said after stating the familiar refrain that racehorses run "about 45 miles per hour on ankles no bigger than yours or mine" while carrying 1,000 pounds. "I've been wearing Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s hat all week. He lost his dad [during the 2001 Daytona 500], a tremendous figure in that sport, and he lost his life. When you operate on a high level, the risks are higher. [In the Derby] that filly ran her guts out, and that's the way it is. There are other sports that have injuries, too. It's a very unfortunate thing."
