Saturday’s Kentucky Derby race – for many folks, the only horse race they notice all year – has, once again, brought unwelcome attention to the spendy sport.

With the lingering death of Derby winner Barbaro still fresh in our minds, the sudden death of second place finisher Eight Belles, has everyone asking the rightful question: “How did this happen?”

"There was no way to save her. She couldn't stand. She ran an incredible race. She ran the race of her life. Losing animals like this isn't fun. It's not supposed to happen. We're heartbroke. We're going to miss her, no doubt."

--Eight Belles' trainer, Larry Jones

From all my ravenous reading, listening and inquiring, it appears there are two small answers leading to one larger answer: Aggressive breeding, racing horses too young and, most importantly, lust for money. The only mention of her death on the Kentucky Derby website is in her file for May 3 where it notes: "Held on gamely for placing. Pulled up in distress." This is all business, folks.

Often called, “The Sport of Kings”, horse racing dates back to Roman times and chariot racing. (In North Dakota, they still do this except with cut out oil drums and farmers instead of gladiators.) The sport began in America in 1665 on Long Island but has long been practiced worldwide, in one form or another. And you can be sure that all formats have inevitable ties to gambling, which creates an atmosphere of frantic one-up-man-ship - the same desperate climate which has done wonders for baseball.

Here in the U.S., this atmosphere translates into breeding for speed without waiting for a full grown horse to be conditioned for endurance. When I first laid eyes on Eight Belles, my first thought was, “Wow. She’s sure got spindly legs for such a heavy torso.” In the end, this proved to be a fatal flaw in her bloodline.

Both Barbaro and Eight Belles were descendants of a prolific bloodline from the stallion, Native Dancer, a 1950s champion whose bloodline is coveted by breeders for producing lightening fast horses that excel at the Derby. Unfortunately, ND's descendants have shown the same fragile tendancies that he himself suffered resulting in multiple leg injuries. Some say that if the industry continues to tap into this bloodline, the grim scenario is likely to be repeated.

I am certainly no expert on this sport but I do know a bit about horses. All of my free time is devoted to improving my riding skills and understanding the equine mind and I’ve got the dead-in-the-water personal life to prove it. I often confess that, at the age of 43, I am having a very tardy post-adolescent pony phase. Truly, I’m never happier than when covered in free-flying horse hair and a fine sheen of equine slobber.

One of the things I have learned over the years is that most horses – especially ones that are regularly ridden and trained – desperately want to please you. There is almost a canine quality about it, which surprised me. As big, hulking beings of pure muscle, their vegetarian minds are naturally, suitably, paranoid. The list of items that appear threatening to them are endless – the floating plastic bag being Enemy Number One. Beyond a big fat bale of hay, what does manage to calm them and instill confidence is the presence of other horses and/or a confident rider on their backs. In this situation, horses will happily go the distance and share the rider’s goals.

And, believe me, these horses they are breeding to race – they desperately want to win. It upsets me to see so much anger directed at Belle’s jockey, Gabriel Saez. I watched the Derby in a room full of horse people, including my horse teacher, and all agreed that the horse gave no sign of trouble until she had crossed the finish line. PETA and the Human Society are up in arms and I’m mighty glad they are forcing the industry to explain itself but to blame the jockey is way off the mark. If a crime has been committed here, it happened long before Mr. Suez ever donned his first silks and stepped on a scale.

There is no doubt in my mind that the industry needs to take a step back and look at what it has become. Like many pro sports these days, the desperation to win at all costs and bow to profit margins has enabled very unhealthy compromises, with the animals paying the price in this case.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out if it is my love of horses or my strong feelings of sisterhood that this tragedy has aroused; possibly, it is a little of both. For sure, Eight Belles was no ordinary gal. She was first filly since 1999 to run in the Derby and much was made of her ability to "hang with the boys." She was poised to be the wagering favorite in Friday's Kentucky Oaks, an all-filly showcase. But her owner and trainer decided to run her against the boys despite the fact that she had never done so before. She had, after all, solid credentials with a four-race winning streak.

Even the Presidential campaign halted for the event. Hillary Clinton, who made a comparison between herself and Eight Belles, had asked her constituents to root for the filly on Saturday. Though Clinton didn't attend the race, she'd asked Chelsea to bet on Eight Belles, who still came in second at 13-1, thus repaying her fans' faith by returning $10.60 and $6.40.

No doubt, numerous jokes and comparisons to the filly will be made when folks, once again, ask Hillary to pull out of the race. I can hear the lines being tappity-tapped out even as I write this – clever allusions about how she should still be proud about coming in second or putting in a good run against the men or some such nonsense. The double irony of the Derby’s big winner being “Big Brown” (just let that one sink in for a moment) is almost too perfect. This is why I never was interested in writing fiction – real life is written so much better.

In fact, I stumbled across yet another irony over at Let’s Call It a Night, where blogger Peihe noted:

“How ironic that Chelokee, Michael Matz’s last year’s KY Derby hopeful, who won the first Barbaro Stakes, also broke down just yesterday. His injuries were not as catastrophic as Eight Belles’, however, so he is given a 50/50 chance of surviving his upcoming treatment.”

Peihe also posted a terrific follow up post to this, which also touches on the political mirroring of the situation.

Meanwhile, blogger Eammasuoka over at In res Humanas (“Thoughts on what it means to be human in today’s world”) cuts to the heart of the matter in the post: "Eight Belles Shows the Problem of Breeding, Not Racing":

“Horses are naturally adapted to evading predators based on speed — they can outrun whatever wants to eat them. Horse breeders try to capitalize on this speed by breeding fast horses with other fast horses, past winners with other past winners. Speed, though, is not a gene that can be turned on or off or turned up or down. Speed is achieved through a variety of cost/benefit analyses in the body. Faster animals have lighter weight skeletons, longer legs, bigger lungs. How do you get a faster horse? By sacrificing something else. In general, the easiest way to make something faster is to lighten the weight of the skeleton, but if you do this you walk a fine line between bone that can take the stress of running and bone that can’t.”

In falling down one cyber rabbit hole after the next looking for answers to Eight Belle’s death, I stumbled across the blog Wide Lawns and Narrow Minds, the description of which is worth noting:

“Yeah I know, everyone's family is crazy. But yours doesn't need a flow chart to explain and it doesn't blend convicted felons, watermelon salesmen, Baptist missionaries and orthodox Jews. You didn't move 29 times and go to 8 different high schools and your sister isn't really your aunt. Lastly, you didn't have a monkey. I survived all of this and now I live in South Florida around a bunch of lunatics in a place where (like Hemingway said) the lawns are wide and the minds are narrow.”

I don’t want to give this gal’s story away but Eight Belles plays a crucial role in a pivotal family drama. Her writing is funny, clever and heartfelt – I highly recommend you take the time. Her story begins thus:

“I'm just going to warn you all right now that this story is disturbing as hell, so if you're having a sensitive, PMS-y kind of day you might want to read this at a later moment. If you love horses I'll suggest you don't read it at all, because well, my family and I - we kill horses. And we killed Eight Belles the other day at the Kentucky Derby …..”

Heather Clisby

Contributing Editor, Photography & Animal Concerns

Proprietor, ClizBiz Blog & Website