Eight Belles

I'll start off by saying that I am by no means an expert on horse racing. I watch what most watch the Kentucky Derby, then if there's a story, the Preakness and if the story continues I'll catch the Belmont. Sound like you? I'm bettin'.

We owned horses when I was a kid but I can't say I was old enough to enjoy them but again I am no expert on the animal, or the sport. But I think all of us are qualified to have an opinion on the recent tragedy at the Kentucky Derby Saturday. The great young Philly, Eight Bells broke both of her front legs at the races conclusion as she tried to track down Big Brown and had to be put down on the track due to the severity of her injuries.

I have always loved dogs, but when I met and married my wife she influenced me to open my eyes to the rest of the animal world. Nice gift. I have empathy and compassion for all animals but to be clear, I am not a PETA member nor do I agree with their tactics and stunts. But I can still love animals.

To be honest, I don't really consider horse racing a true sport, but mostly it's an exhibition which can be exciting to be sure. We love to watch beautiful horses do what they do - run! We even toss a wager or two down to make it a little more heart pounding. The Kentucky Derby too is an event complete with big hats, rich people, mint juleps, and a whole day of fun. A huge TV audience the whole deal.

That's what I know. I also know that something as to change. This is the second big-time high profile disaster in the triple crown races in two years. Barbaro and now Eight Belles. There was also the horse George Washington last October in the Breeders Cup put down on the track, Go For Wand in 1990 (live on TV) put down in the Breeders Cup as well. Ruffian in 1975 in a silly two horse grudge match broke down and could not be saved as well.

Regardless on how you feel about horse racing, we can't continue to have animals writhing in agony and euthanized for all to see on national TV and in front of 100,000 fans live and call it fun or entertaining. To NBC's credit the coverage on Saturday was done well. I'm sure if your kids were watching it was pretty tough too. I'm not going to pretend to know that the solution is. But I know this. Someone has to be a hero here and come up with some changes that will lessen this kind of thing in the future. It's happening too much and it's not fun anymore.

I am not forgetting that horses by nature love to run. But as much as ESPN would love you to think they are athletes, they are not. They are competitive by nature, but at the days end they are horses. I can remember Secretariat and Seattle Slew, probably the two greatest race horse champions that ever lived. Both had huge hearts and great drive to be out front. I think that's the difference, horses know being in the lead and nothing about winning. I've heard the argument too that race car drivers risk their lives, but there's no correlation. Drivers voluntarily get in the car and race on their own terms. Horses love to run too but we make them run on our terms not theirs, and there lies the problem.

Look, the Triple Crown is not going to go away. There's too much tradition, fun to be had, and too much money involved. Big-time sporting events just don't go away, but I hope that in the after shocks of Eight Belles death we look to really make changes to the way it's all done. I think all would agree that the changes made to NASCAR after Dale Earnhardt's death have made the sport much better and safer.

It made me a bit mad to hear some say that Eight Belles "ran the race of her life on Saturday." - Yea - no kidding she did. Since she gave her life for the race of her life, let's not let her death just be shoved away like the others. Let's hope the true legacy of Eight Belles is that her untimely death is the pivot point from here forward to make horse racing safer for those that can't change the rules, only be asked to live by them - The horses.