We were all saddened by the breakdown of Eight Belles on the track. The race, so thrilling and majestic, yet again ended with people crying in the stands, PETA calling for action and the end result (a seemingly effortless come-from-behind victory by Big Brown) overshadowed by a shocking death and countless questions about the sport.

It’s hard to shake off, even 3 days later. Do we enjoy watching because we think the horses want to run? Do we enjoy the betting and drinking aspects (see post below)? Do we watch to see what celebrities are there? Whatever our reasons, witnessing an unexplained and violent breaking of both front legs on an animal that is supposed to gallop effortlessly makes horse racing just a little too foreign. And with NBC showing all the wild celebrating in the stands (with many winning money on Eight Belles), while the filly struggled in agony - well, it was too much. It’s hard to rack up the occasional death to being just ‘part of the sport’.

Tim Layden of SI does a good job of making sense of the aftermath. Racing will have to change if it ever expects to retrieve the casual audience it craves. There will always be the curiosity seeker, the person who will watch to see if something happens. But the rest of us may lose interest until a more durable horse, one that is not as over-bred and fragile as a bug-eyed teacup Pomeranian, comes along and creates a sensation.

Americans have room for only so many sob stories. Horse racing has to change its plot line.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Fantoo Blog Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.