Tuesday, May 06, 2008

A tribute to Eight Bells

Eight Bells placed on Saturday. In Friday's post I had her winning, but she was unable to keep up with the favorite, Big Brown. She did a fine job beating the rest of the boys.

While I was happy to see the filly take second, I was saddened to see she had to be euthanized just minutes after the race. She broke her two front legs. While I've not heard the official prognosis, I'm thinking she may have had stress fractures due to the race that caused problems once she started to slow down.

The Washington Post states that on average 1.5 horses are injured per 1000 starts. That's .15% if you're keeping track at home. While I understand people's concerns over animal treatment, I think horse racing continues to be a humane sport and does not inflect harm to animals. However, I am a bit concerned that the breeders are manipulating the breed for speed and sacrificing durability for these horses.

1 comment:

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