Jackson was the breeder for both Barbaro and George Washington.
"[Wife] Gretchen and I feel strongly that there's an overemphasis on commercial breeding and thus, breeding for speed," Jackson said from his home in West Grove, Pa. "Of course, we're really more interested in the racing end of it."
The racing industry, he said, "may be a microcosm of our times, where everything centers around the money."
Reiley McDonald grew up in Maryland around horses and now works in Lexington, Ky., as a breeder and seller. Derby runner Visionaire was foaled and raised on his Eaton Farms.
McDonald says there is a lot more to breeding than simply matching fast bloodlines.
"In addition to speed, a horse has to have the scope and size and length to carry speed over a distance of ground," he said. "A horse has to have courage to carry speed over distance, and soundness to carry speed over distance. This notion that people are breeding nothing but speed would be a crazy philosophy of breeding."
McDonald said he believes catastrophic injuries are down. In a study of 2007 injuries, Dr. Mary Scollay found there were 1.47 fatalities per 1,000 starts on synthetic surfaces and 2.03 fatalities per 1,000 starts on dirt tracks.
Rosenberg acknowledged that there is pressure for the industry to change its breeding tactics, nonetheless.
"Everybody wants a simple, easy answer, but I'm not sure there is one," he said.
Instead, he opted for an analogy: "I can buy a pickup truck and change the oil every once in a while and go bombing across fields. But if I buy a Maserati or a Lamborghini, it's going to spend a lot of time in the shop."
The competitive nature of the thoroughbred is another factor that very well might have played a role in Eight Belles' demise and in the deaths of other horses.
"When you have athletes competing at the highest level, they push themselves beyond the limits of endurance," Rosenberg said. "They are all plagued by injuries.
"I'm not trying to excuse injuries in horse racing. It's imperative we do everything we can to minimize them. Is it dangerous? You bet. When you have an athlete competing at the very limits of endurance, you're going to have injuries."
ken.murray@baltsun.com
Sun reporter Sandra McKee contributed to this article.
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