Tragedy at Kentucky Derby-things must change

By now most of you will have read about the victory of Big Brown, with the filly Eight Belles coming in second, only to break both front ankles and have to be euthanized.

I love horses, but I hate thoroughbred racing the way it is done today. I was in college during the era of the great Secretariat. I had a poster of him (and was very disappointed when he died at what I thought was an early age), but I admired the horse, not the sport. Also in college I watched the "battle of the sexes" where the filly Ruffian broke down and was euthanized.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruffian_%28horse%29
(Read the description of her injuries. Imagine how much "fun" that was for us to watch on TV. Not so much.)

Years would go by and I'd never watch any of the races, and often not even realize they are being run on certain days. I remember once in the late 1980's when one Saturday afternoon I was at the frame shop and wealthy women were gabbing about the "Derby party" that afternoon. I didn't even realize the Kentucky Derby was being run.

It's not a sport, and it's certainly not love of animals. It's a business, and like many businesses, what started out as a reasonable thing to do (race fast horses and bet on them) has become a freak show.

Thoroughbred horses are inbred freaks. They are pushed to race when they are between 2-3 years old, which is too young. They are routinely medicated in ways that endanger their health and their ability to stop racing when they are overly strained. The track surfaces are not as safe as they could be. And winners, rather than the most fit, are bred and sold for huge quantities of money. Let me repeat that point. Horses are not bred to be sturdy and fast. They are bred to be fast and to have "winning parents."

I think people need to start a groundswell to revise this entire "sport." First, let's start with agreeing that this is not the place to argue about being vegetarian or a tree hugger. There is nothing wrong with fast and sturdy horses racing and people who like that kind of thing enjoying watching and being in the business. The problem is, though, that thoroughbred racing has become a baby horse eugenics freak show. Too young horses produced in the bizarre world of stud books and superstition and being raced at a too young age and in too dangerous conditions. Horse racing through the ages used to be, "Wow, I have me here a fast horse. Let me race it against your fast horse." Fast sturdy healthy adult horses were brought together to race. There was not a rich man and woman's eugenics freak show where laboratory baby horses are produced from "winning parents" who all share 47% of the same genes. (All thoroughbred horses are descendants of only 3 horses, and thus they share almost half their genes).

I suggest that huge pressure be put on the Jockey Club, the racing sponsors, the track owners, and the breeders, owners and trainers of horses to either change their sport to be healthier and safer for the horses, or stand aside while a new organization comes together to race mature fast horses of all breeds (not just the thoroughbred freak show) in more natural and safe conditions. I'd like to see more breeds at more mature ages race in more safety managed conditions.

I mean, who the F really cares about the record book anyway? Thoroughbred racing is like baseball's steroid era in many ways. No one but the shaking money makers cares about who won in what year. If the sport is so much "fun," then should people not be going for the racing and the betting, and not so that Snot Nose III born of Goober Nose IV won the Freak Cup and is thus going to yield $1 million per hump in stud fees? I mean really, who is kidding who. How enjoyable is watching these races, holding one's breath against a tragedy like Barbaro, and now the filly Eight Belles? Read the comments on any blog site today on this subject. Virtually everyone who is not a fat cat owner is watching a race reluctantly and with a pit in one's stomach dreading a tragic break down. That's why I never watched throughout the years. When I wanted a dose of loving a horse, I went to the stable and groomed some. Like I said, racing is fine, but it must be completely re visioned out of this horrible freak show. I'd be afraid to let a child watch a race, wondering what toothpick legs will snap today and what nightmares the child will have from that. And from the reader post comments I read on blogs, many adults watched reluctantly and will now have to erase Eight Belles from the memory bank, just as we all had to Barbaro not so long ago.

Owners, breeders and trainers. You say you love your horses. Well, stop being millionaire freaks and take some responsibility and man and woman up to revise your entire "sport." Unless you prefer your money with horse blood on it.