Published: May 16, 2008 03:19 pm            

Controversy overshadowed Big Brown's Derby victory

When Big Brown came under the wire well clear of his 19 rivals in the 134th Kentucky Derby on May 3, he instantly solidified his spot as the top 3-year-old thoroughbred in North America this spring. A few seconds later, none of that seemed to matter.

Eight Belles — the only filly in the field — finished a clear and surprising second to Big Brown in the Derby for the fourth best showing by a member of her sex in the 134 runnings of this country’s most famous horse race. Trainer Larry Jones’ confidence in his stable star — the confidence to send her up against what appeared to be a strong field of colts rather than taking on fillies the day before in a much easier spot in the Kentucky Oaks — was confirmed, and her runner-up finish was almost as big a story as Big Brown’s victory.

In less than an eighth of a mile, though, she became even bigger news. Instead of coming out of the race as the toast of feminists everywhere, Eight Belles suddenly became a cause for animal rights activists and a much bigger problem for horse racing than she could have ever been an asset.

When the big gray filly shattered both front ankles while pulling up after her historic Derby effort, the victory by Big Brown and everything else that had happened that afternoon suddenly seemed inconsequential. She was euthanized on the track in front of more than 100,000 live witnesses and a world television audience, and the controversy over the humanity of her sport toward its equine participants was again brought into question.

With a few concessions to technology, the treatment of race horses hasn’t changed that much over the centuries. For the most part, thoroughbreds lead a pampered but mundane existence at the track, spending 23 of almost every 24 hours of a non-race day in their stalls, with the other hour used for training and the routine involved before and after they go to the track each morning.

Thoroughbreds at major tracks want for nothing. They get the best feed and supplements available, they have their own groom and a veterinarian on call, and any little change in their daily habits is cause for concern. Leaving a few oats in a feed tub or a slight spike in temperature brings the vet around, and trainers like Jones — who seems to treat all of the horses in his relatively small public stable like family — never take a chance with the health of one of their stars.

So when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) launched a crusade implying mistreatment by Jones and jockey Christian Saez and blaming them for Eight Belles’ death, they were simply showing their ignorance.

Surely, the PETA officials said, the filly had steroids in her system to account for her size or she had some pre-existing condition that caused her to break down. Saez, they said, was allowed to “whip her mercilessly” down the stretch, implying that Eight Belles ran until she snapped her fragile front ankles trying to please him. They even called for Saez to be suspended for their perceived role in her death in the days after the race.

A necropsy performed on Eight Belles showed no abnormalities, however. She was as healthy as Jones could make her, and her death, though tragic, was simply an accident — although one that was magnified because it happened on a national stage.

The sad fact is that racehorses sometimes die doing what the thing they’re bred for and the thing they love. They run on bones not much bigger than those in the human leg, and they become less sound with every stride they take. Perhaps the saddest part of the death of Eight Belles and a couple of other prominent 3-year-old fillies who died on the track — Ruffian after breaking down in her match race with the colt Foolish Pleasure in 1975 and Go For Wand after she shattered a leg in the stretch run of the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Distaff — was that they died so young and with so much unrealized potential.

The same was true for Barbaro, who broke down as an odds-on favorite in the 2006 Preakness after scoring a Derby victory eerily similar to Big Brown’s two weeks ago. Barbaro received an outpouring of support from racing fans and people who had never seen a horse race in person during his brave struggle to survive his injuries, and millions mourned when the beautiful bay colt finally succumbed early in 2007 to an attack of laminities that made it impossible for him to stand any longer.

In 1998, Derby winner Charismatic broke down in the Belmont Stakes, leaving his jockey, the late Chris Antley, standing next to the colt in tears as he tried to keep him from moving and aggravating his injury (which he survived). That image alone speaks volumes about the relationship between a jockey and a special horse, and Saez probably felt a similar sense of loss after the death of Eight Belles.

Injuries in horse racing are simply — and sadly — a fact of life, and, minus the abolition of the sport altogether, they figure to continue. The only good thing about the death of Eight Belles is that it brings the horse — the one player on the racing stage without a voice — to the forefront and, at least until the hubbub dies down, will encourage trainers to go the extra yard to make sure their charges are healthy when they go to the track.

The big loser in all of the post-race controversy was the Derby winner himself. Big Brown ran one of the most visually impressive races in the long history of the event, moving effortlessly to the lead entering the stretch and powering away from the field despite racing four-wide throughout. Only Eight Belles was in the same zip code at the finish, and some of America’s most highly regarded 3-year-olds were left toiling in his wake.

Saturday’s pre-race coverage of the Preakness will undoubtedly feature a re-hash of the Eight Belles controversy and its effect on racing, and, although Big Brown’s newfound stardom and his incredible talent will offset the negative repercussions of the Derby to some extent, the ghost of Eight Belles will be floating over the race.

If Big Brown can duplicate his effort at Churchill Downs against an otherwise mediocre field at Pimlico Saturday and move thoroughbred racing to the cusp of its first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed turned the trick 30 years ago, Eight Belles might finally be laid to rest and the sport can go back to business as usual; if he loses (probably at odds of 2-to-5 or less), that might be an even a bigger story.

Either way, horse racing will survive this controversy as it has others over the years. Hopefully, though, Eight Belles won’t be forgotten too soon, and her death will have a positive impact on the sport down the road.

        

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