(Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby)
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When Eight Belles was first introduced to the Kentucky Oaks scene, I wrote her off. I was already strongly backing Proud Spell at that point, a decision that helped me pick the Oaks-Derby Double this year. It wasn’t until the first mention of running her in the Derby that I took a closer look. When I did, I was extremely impressed. Aside from a seventh place disappointment at two, her record looked good, and each of the races she’d won had a character of its own. She won from last. From first. And after one of the most interesting gate breaks I’ve ever seen. She was a big filly, standing 17 hands tall, which is 5’8” at the top of her shoulder. She went into the Derby as the most experienced horse in the field, and came out second best. If Big Brown wins the Belmont Stakes, that move will be that much more impressive. Of course we all know the unfortunate circumstances that took Eight Belles’s life after her valiant Derby effort. And though no one can agree on a cause (everything from steroids to the whip have been blamed), we can all agree that something should be done.
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Horse racing has been appearing more dangerous in recent years, starting really with Barbaro, whose injuries in the 2006 Preakness Stakes took eight months to cost him his life. He was followed by Pine Island, who fell on the backstretch of the 2006 Breeder’s Cup Distaff and was immediately euthanized, and Fleet Indian, also in the 2006 BCD suffered a non life threatening, but career ending injury. Last year’s Triple Crown went without major incident, but the fall campaign brought more disaster. A single day at Keenland racecourse carried three major injuries with it. A horse named Dream of Angels flipped backwards in the paddock before the race and had to be put down after suffering severe head trauma, bleeding, and cranial and spinal cord problems. A two year old named Gold Train broke down in the Lane’s End Breeder’s Futurity and also had to be euthanized. And Kentucky Derby 17th place finisher Teuflesberg was injured in the Phoenix Handicap, and was taken off the track in an ambulance. He was operated on and able to enter stud in 2008. The Breeder’s Cup ran in very sloppy conditions in 2007, and the last race of the day was the last race for George Washington, a European horse bred by Roy and Gretchen Jackson (Barbaro’s owners). George Washington had been retired, but after being found sterile, was taken back to the track. He was euthanized after breaking an ankle in the BCC, the race that ensured champion Curlin Horse of the Year honors. This brings us to 2008 Kentucky Oaks day, when Michael Matz trained Chelokee dislocated his ankle in the Alysheba Stakes. He broke no bones but underwent surgery to repair the dislocation and damaged ligaments. Chelokee is currently doing very well. And finally, we come to Eight Belles, who broke both front ankles while pulling up after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby. These are just the breakdowns in televised events between the 2006 Preakness Stakes and the 2008 Preakness Stakes.
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I watched Eight Belles’s accident over and over, trying to figure out exactly what happened. But I don’t think there will ever be a clear explanation. No, Larry Jones is not responsible because he gave her an anti-inflamitory less than two days before the race. It would have been out of her system. No, it is not because she ran in the Derby instead of the Oaks. It could have just as easily happened to her in the Oaks, or to any of the boys in the Derby. No, it is not her jockey’s fault—he rode her perfectly, and used his whip sparingly. There’s one thing that sticks out to me when I watch that video, and it’s something that no one has even mentioned. The filly switched leads only one stride before she collapsed. To me that could be coincidence, but most likely means one of two things happened. Either she broke the left first, then switched to the right lead to take the pressure off the left front. Then, the added pressure to the right front caused it to give out. Or, she switched on her own because that’s what she’s trained to do when she enters the back and home stretches, and she didn’t follow through, which caused her to stumble. Jones said that she had a habit of not picking her feet up very well when she was pulling up. Of course those are just my humble theories as I am untrained, but I do know quite a bit about horseracing, and a lot about horses in general.
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The outpouring of grief (or in some cases anger) over the death of Eight Belles is unprecedented. PETA is calling for immediate action. And while some of the things they suggest may be a bit over the top, I think there are some changes that can be made, but first we need to pinpoint the biggest problem and start there. Ruffian’s death called for the end of match racing—which was a huge problem because there is no strategy, meaning that the horses have to run full out the whole race. The only way to win a match race is to run faster than the other horse and be able to maintain that speed longer than the other horse. But if you go back before Ruffian, breakdowns were not as prominent. What was different back then? A lot of things. If I had to take a guess at what the three biggest problems are, I’d have to say that the use of drugs (not all but most) is the first. The way that thoroughbreds are bred these days is also an issue. It’s all about speed. No one breeds a durable horse anymore. After all, what good is a horse that could run all day, but can’t win? Back in the day horses used be able to run some 80 races and never get hurt. But today, that horse would not be fast enough to beat our speed driven breed. We need to go back to a more durable horse. Also in that category is the issue of breeding farms. Back then, people bred their own horses for the purpose of racing them. Now, all they need to do is make good money selling them, which they can do by taking a horse with problems and making them cosmetically perfect. No one will ever know what the past of their foal is like. The horses also don’t get turn out time as foals as much now, and that pasture time produces wear and tear that helps make the horse stronger. The other thing we need to do is really research this polytrack stuff, and if we find that it is indeed safer, have it installed more places. We also need to find a better way to enforce the rules we make.
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Autopsy revealed that Eight Belles didn’t have any serious health issues or bone abnormalities, nor was she on steroids. The filly is going to be memorialized at Churchill Downs, where she ran her last race. No one expected the Kentucky Derby to be the end of the road for her, especially when she ran so well. But Eight Belles ran the race of her life—she laid everything she had on that track, and she never made it back to the barn.
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