Just watched the Kentucky Derby.
Big Brown won, with great life story of the trainer (whose girlfriend was murdered in the next room from their daughter, who was with him at the Derby) and the jockey (seems he’s got a hearing-impaired son).
Really a great pull-away win.
But.
Eight Belles, the first filly in the race in 9 years, who took second place by more than the same margin that Big Brown beat her, broke down after the race and was euthanized because she broke both front ankles.
I was at Belmont Park for the Belmont Stakes in 1999, when Charismatic was supposed to take the Triple Crown, but he broke down at the end. It was a gorgeous fucking day in Queens, perfect temperature, no discernable humidity. My friends Rosalyn and Kevin were in town from Chicago; Roz was on business and Kevin was along for the ride (though he was from Kearney, where the pork store on The Sopranos is (sometime, remind me to tell you about my (very) peripheral involvement in the North Jersey and Connecticut mobs) and had moved to Chicago to get away from the mob thing).
Kevin lent me $50 to bet, because I had been misled by the Visa Triple Crown ads that they’d accept my debit card there. I bet on Charismatic and a couple of other horses; Kevin wound up betting on the eventual winner, Lemon Drop Kid, because of a throwaway comment I made about him while I was looking at the race guide, that he was out of Seattle Slew.
In the end, Lemon Drop Kid won, Charismatic broke down at the finish, and Kevin won about $4000 on his bet based on my throwaway comment about Lemon Drop Kid’s parentage. He also sprung for dinner that night.
The creepiest bit is that I’m fairly certain that the breeders will work hard to extract usable eggs from the corpse of Eight Belles.
The creepiest bit is that I’m fairly certain that the breeders will work hard to extract usable eggs from the corpse of Eight Belles.
Actually, this is pretty unlikely if their plan is to breed thoroughbreds. The breed registry requires live cover, so if all parties are not present and accounted for at the time of conception, it’s not going to happen.
I’m still somewhat confused as to how she broke down. She looked fine coming down the home stretch, and then all of sudden there was the ambulance. It’s really damn sad.
Only to echo, yes, that is really damned sad. Do they know why she broke down?
They’d have to be pretty dim to want to breed using the genetic material from a horse that broke both front ankles, Derby winner notwithstanding. A very fast horse that’s fundamentally unsound is a horse you can’t count on to win any race.
That said, I’d be very happy if normal Thoroughbred breeders would start breeding for a little more bone for soundness’ sake. It seems as though recently the trend has been to breed the horses to be as bird-boned and fast as they can make them, at the expense of health. Not that destroying a strain of animals through selective breeding for fundamentally-unhealthy but human-desireable traits is news, exactly, but it would be nice to see them — just this once — pull back from the brink.
To me this is just more evidence that when you mix $ and animals (dog racing, horse racing, factory farming), the animals suffer. I have retired racing greyhounds, so this is a trigger for me.
had moved to Chicago to get away from the mob thing now that’s ironic.
Jesus Christ, I’ve heard more than one person (dudely persuasion) laughing about Eight Belles’ death today as a metaphor for the Democratic Primary. Because you know what’s funny? When females lose and die. It’s awesome, is what it is.
Watch out, Hillary.
No kidding, Lauren. Lots of snickering about euthanizing the filly.
That’s disgusting, Lauren. Just eeeew. Yuck yuck yuck.
(I can’t imagine anyone who’s been in the horse business making remarks like this).
FE, I’ve heard a different kind of misogyny: the theory that Ruffian (one of the all-time great horses, a filly who entered a match race in 1975 undefeated but broke down and was put down) bred an unsound gene into the population. Folks I know who train horses think this is just flat nonsense; thoroughbreds have been bred to be so light and so strong that they overpower their own bones and their own internal organs, and are always precariously balanced on the edge of ill health or injury. But some folks blame the filly.
I didn’t see the race, and I’m glad.
Thomas, I don’t see how they could blame a horse that was put down as a 3 year old?
I saw the race–it was sad to watch. The NBC announcer said they’d have an update in 30 seconds, and 30 seconds later the track vet was announcing they’d had to put her down. Very sad.
FE, Ruffian was not put down at the track. They operated, but coming out of surgery she flipped out and rebroke the leg, cast and all. She was put down 24 hours after the race — though I wouldn’t be surprised if the announcer said they were going to put her down; the injury isn’t usually survivable and surgical repair is usually a failure.
Thomas, I think Fash is referring to two different things: Ruffian being put down as a three-year-old (which makes it all but impossible for her to have corrupted the gene pool) and then this year’s Derby.
The source of Eight Belles’ flawed breeding is Native Dancer, the “Gray Ghost” of the 50s. He was a brilliant racer, but had a problem with mushy feet that seems to be a dominant gene. He appears on both sides of Eight Belles’ bloodline.
I’ve heard that Eight Belles’ sire has produced weak-legged horses before. She was quite tall for a thoroughbred, 17.1 hands, I believe - five feet nine inches at the shoulders; she may not even have been done growing.