Like many of you, I watched Saturday’s Kentucky Derby and was in awe of the amazing performance of Big Brown and his talented jockey, Kent Desormeaux. Big Brown ran a race from the 20th post position that was remarkable. And Desormeaux rode a race that even I could appreciate as very skillful. Unfortunately for racing, events unfolded after the race that completely overshadowed Big Brown’s impressive performance.
Eight Belles, a beautiful gray filly trained by Larry Jones, was galloping out after her imposing second-place finish when something went terribly wrong and she collapsed on the track after fracturing bones in both front legs. Those of us in the stands at Churchill Downs were left wondering what had happened since she went down almost at the 7/8ths pole near the backstretch far away from the grandstand. Our only indication of trouble was the sight of one human ambulance and two horse ambulances making their way to the other side of the track. It clearly did not look good.
Eventually, news filtered through the stands of what had happened. So in the span of less than 10 minutes, we went from jubilation to utter sorrow. The mood in the stands was palpably downbeat. People did not want such a terrible outcome for any horse in the race, least of all the filly.
In the wake of her accident, our sport has come under heightened public scrutiny. The last two days have been so busy that I have had no time to reflect on the events or to write this blog entry. However, the delay has provided me with an opportunity to take stock of the events that have unfolded since Saturday. Here is my thinking today.
Questions are coming from all directions. Did the young jockey use the whip excessively? Why was the filly running against the boys? Is it cruel to race 2-year-olds or to make 3-year-olds race the classic distance of 1 ¼ miles? Why doesn’t Churchill have a synthetic surface to prevent such injuries? What else are we doing as an industry to prevent horses from dying? Are we breeding a weaker horse than we did in the past? Is racing inherently cruel to the horse? No matter how ridiculous they may seem, all of these questions deserve honest, straight-forward answers.
Truth is, our industry has been asking ourselves some of these more relevant questions for some time. Two years ago, in the wake of Barbaro’s injury, the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and The Jockey Club convened a series of meetings at Keeneland known as the
Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit. The goal of the initial summit was to identify critical issues that affect horse health and/or shorten the career of racehorses and to develop action plans to address each issue. Out of that summit came a strategic plan to address the durability of the breed, the use or ban of certain horseshoes such as toe-grabs, and the development of a uniform on-track injury reporting system for horses and humans. The summit was reconvened in March of this year to continue work in all of these areas and added to the list of initiatives the promotion of safe and consistent track surfaces as well as ways in which to reduce the number of racing fatalities.
Today, we as an industry find ourselves at another important crossroads. The easy path might be to hunker down and let these issues dissipate over time. My personal view, at least as of today, is that the industry needs to take drastic action to reverse a very disturbing trend toward open criticism of horse racing for our perceived cruelty to our equine athletes. At the same time, we need to collectively take a deep breath and resist the temptation to rush to judgment or reach hasty conclusions until the facts are better known. We might never know what caused Eight Belle’s injury, but I believe that the facts will eventually conclude that this was a tragic accident and one different from any I’ve ever seen before.
One thing is for sure: we owe it to the horse to make sure we are taking every reasonable precaution to assure their welfare and safety. Time is of the essence. We cannot afford to take a wait-and-see approach. Action is needed by industry leaders in a position to make a difference.
Two weeks ago I said that the horseplayer is the single most important economic driver of our game. Saturday, and for just about every moment since, I am reminded that without safe, healthy horses competing at our racetracks, we have no sport on which to bet.
I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on what you believe racing should do in the wake of Eight Belles’ death. Thanks.