She mocketh at fear, and is not dismayed

[sienamystic]

Eight Belles ran a wonderful race. She came second in the Kentucky Derby. And then, after the wire, she fell, with two broken front ankles, and was euthanized on the spot.

Every year, I have the same fight with myself - the wild excitement and beauty of the races, and the sure knowledge that they run these horses at too young an age. They're babies with still-fragile bones, running as fast as their gallant hearts can drive them, and all too often something goes wrong and it all ends with a lethal injection on the track. It was hard to watch the jubilant celebrations going on knowing that there was a truck hauling Eight Belles off. I don't know if I can do this anymore. They're thrilled because there's another viable Triple Crown winner in Big Brown, but I don't know if I can continue to watch.

Matociquala's take as well as Buymeaclue, Dancinghorse, Wldhrsjen3, Devildoll and Fugly Horse of the Day.

Comments

yer

[(Anonymous)]

I've forsworn traditional circuses for the same reason. Just can't condone it.

Cher

[genarti]

Mom and I tried to listen to the Derby on the radio -- we were in a car at the time, so we couldn't watch it properly -- but the signal faded out just before the actual race started.

Mom told me about Eight Belles the next morning, after she'd gone to get and read a newspaper while I was still asleep. She said she was glad to have missed the race after all, because it's always so awful to have that happen. (Even if she was glad that Eight Belles took second, to show something to all those people who are so self-importantly confident that fillies can't do well at this kind of race.)

Yeah. Modern horse-racing is just so messed up. And the number of horses that wash out every year, and have so many physical and behavioral problems from those couple of years in the mad whirlwind world of cutthroat racing stables... yeah.

There's a lot of it it's really, really hard to condone.