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Protecting the health of our equine athletes
By Edgar Prado
May 14, 2008
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Eight Belles was just a few yards in front of me when she collapsed after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby on May 3.
As I eased up my horse, Adriano, who had finished next to last, I saw the filly stumble and fall as she galloped out. I prayed she was just tired, just as I had prayed that Barbaro wasn't seriously injured when I felt him go weak underneath me in the first 100 yards of the 2006 Preakness Stakes.
As everyone knows, it turned out Barbaro had suffered a catastrophic injury that eventually led to his demise, and I knew Eight Belles was in similar trouble when I watched her struggle to get up. She fell back, obviously unable to bear weight on her front ankles - then tried to rise and fell back again.
My heart ached as I watched the equine ambulances speeding toward her, taking me back to that sad day at Pimlico Race Course when I had to stop Barbaro. When doctors discovered that Eight Belles was, in fact, severely injured, she was humanely euthanized.
Barbaro's injury started an important national conversation about what causes horses to break down. The racing industry reacted in positive ways. The installation of synthetic racing surfaces at nine major American tracks has resulted in fewer catastrophic injuries, according to a new reporting system overseen by the Jockey Club, the governing body of American horse racing.
Eight Belles' demise has people talking again about what the industry can do to keep its horses safe. I would love to see it devise a single set of rules, in effect nationwide, governing the use of medication and overall treatment and care of horses. As it is, some are pushed beyond their limits, given medication so they don't feel pain and can run when they shouldn't. This would happen less if every state operated under the same rules.
No matter what the industry does, though, we'll likely never know what caused Barbaro or Eight Belles to break down. In my experience, which includes more than 25,000 races, it is the champions that push themselves to their physical limits, sometimes with fateful consequences.
Horses love to run; if you leave them alone in a field, they naturally start competing. But run-of-the-mill horses can go around and around a track without anything bad ever happening. They don't push themselves to go faster and do better. They recoil from pain and slow down.
Those horses know their limits. That's why they're on the bench, as opposed to in the game, when the big races come up.
Great horses such as Eight Belles are different. They aren't just faster; they have a competitive instinct that makes them want to finish first. It doesn't matter whether their jockey touches them. It doesn't matter how long the race is. They want to run in front of a pack, and they'll put themselves on the line physically to do so.
Even after Barbaro's right rear leg bones shattered into 27 pieces that day at Pimlico, he kept running on three legs, trying to stay up with the other horses in the race. He wanted to keep going. He wanted to be in front.
Eight Belles finished second in the Derby, but she put forth a magnificent effort. She finished ahead of 18 colts - far ahead, in some cases. Coming through the stretch with her legs pumping, her eyes focused and her competitors falling away, she was a breathtaking vision of pure athleticism.
Then, suddenly, she was down.
In the vast majority of instances, these champion horses don't injure themselves going all out. But we should continue to focus on doing all we can to help them stay healthy. For me - and for many people, I'm sure - Eight Belles' downfall brought back memories of Barbaro. A great occasion had gone horribly awry. A great athlete had succumbed.
There is nothing sadder.
Edgar Prado is the author, with former Sun sportswriter John Eisenberg, of "My Guy
Barbaro: A Jockey's Journey Through Love, Triumph, and Heartbreak with America's Favorite Horse." He can be contacted through
By Edgar Prado
May 14, 2008
Article tools
E-mail Share
Eight Belles was just a few yards in front of me when she collapsed after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby on May 3.
As I eased up my horse, Adriano, who had finished next to last, I saw the filly stumble and fall as she galloped out. I prayed she was just tired, just as I had prayed that Barbaro wasn't seriously injured when I felt him go weak underneath me in the first 100 yards of the 2006 Preakness Stakes.
As everyone knows, it turned out Barbaro had suffered a catastrophic injury that eventually led to his demise, and I knew Eight Belles was in similar trouble when I watched her struggle to get up. She fell back, obviously unable to bear weight on her front ankles - then tried to rise and fell back again.
My heart ached as I watched the equine ambulances speeding toward her, taking me back to that sad day at Pimlico Race Course when I had to stop Barbaro. When doctors discovered that Eight Belles was, in fact, severely injured, she was humanely euthanized.
Barbaro's injury started an important national conversation about what causes horses to break down. The racing industry reacted in positive ways. The installation of synthetic racing surfaces at nine major American tracks has resulted in fewer catastrophic injuries, according to a new reporting system overseen by the Jockey Club, the governing body of American horse racing.
Eight Belles' demise has people talking again about what the industry can do to keep its horses safe. I would love to see it devise a single set of rules, in effect nationwide, governing the use of medication and overall treatment and care of horses. As it is, some are pushed beyond their limits, given medication so they don't feel pain and can run when they shouldn't. This would happen less if every state operated under the same rules.
No matter what the industry does, though, we'll likely never know what caused Barbaro or Eight Belles to break down. In my experience, which includes more than 25,000 races, it is the champions that push themselves to their physical limits, sometimes with fateful consequences.
Horses love to run; if you leave them alone in a field, they naturally start competing. But run-of-the-mill horses can go around and around a track without anything bad ever happening. They don't push themselves to go faster and do better. They recoil from pain and slow down.
Those horses know their limits. That's why they're on the bench, as opposed to in the game, when the big races come up.
Great horses such as Eight Belles are different. They aren't just faster; they have a competitive instinct that makes them want to finish first. It doesn't matter whether their jockey touches them. It doesn't matter how long the race is. They want to run in front of a pack, and they'll put themselves on the line physically to do so.
Even after Barbaro's right rear leg bones shattered into 27 pieces that day at Pimlico, he kept running on three legs, trying to stay up with the other horses in the race. He wanted to keep going. He wanted to be in front.
Eight Belles finished second in the Derby, but she put forth a magnificent effort. She finished ahead of 18 colts - far ahead, in some cases. Coming through the stretch with her legs pumping, her eyes focused and her competitors falling away, she was a breathtaking vision of pure athleticism.
Then, suddenly, she was down.
In the vast majority of instances, these champion horses don't injure themselves going all out. But we should continue to focus on doing all we can to help them stay healthy. For me - and for many people, I'm sure - Eight Belles' downfall brought back memories of Barbaro. A great occasion had gone horribly awry. A great athlete had succumbed.
There is nothing sadder.
Edgar Prado is the author, with former Sun sportswriter John Eisenberg, of "My Guy
Barbaro: A Jockey's Journey Through Love, Triumph, and Heartbreak with America's Favorite Horse." He can be contacted through
Comments
Wish people better understood the thoroughbred as he describes.
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Just to show that this game is all about dreams, I want to share my thoughts driving into Churchill Downs the morning after the Derby.
First of all, I had no idea that Sunday training the morning after the Derby ends at 7:30 a.m. There's a lot to be done to restore this place to order for Wednesday racing. Next, I said to myself, "lets try to find next year's Derby winner today, he or she might be working right before my eyes, just starting to show those early signs of greatness".
The highlight of my last couple days here was completely unexpected. I was touched by hearing a trainer who is stabled next to him give his account of what the Larry Jones' barn was like in the aftermath of Saturday's tragic breakdown. As Larry was preparing his team for thier next stop on the road, his shedrow was showered with good thoughts and well wishes from caring friends and fans of Eight Belles
For the record, I dont know Larry Jones personally, but I will tell you that he is an incredible horseman and a gentleman, as I learned first hand at Fair Grounds during a brief conversation with him. We all mourn this great loss to our sport, but I am comforted by the family feel of what I wished I could have seen at his barn the morning after the Derby. I hear it was beautiful!!!!!
Now, I hit the road to visit my mare Jill's Sky and her 32 day year old In Excess colt at a farm in Paris. Here I've witnessed more of the dedication at the grass roots of what makes this such an incredible sport.
My comfort is that the God given beauty that graces this sport from inception is what separates it from any other on the planet. I can attest that I have never seen a more precious sight then the will of a mom and her baby "running" side by side, doing what they were born to do, from the earliest days of their life.
I wont get into the politics of what I have seen on TV or read about, but I will say this from the blessings to know the reality of what the good Lord above has shown me. The Thoroughbred race horse is perhaps the truest creature on the planet. He or she is born to run, and run their heart out, from the day they leave the mother's womb.
To take my sentiments further, I recommend a listen to "The Run For The Roses" by the late Dan Fogelberg, the artist who had beauty and purity at heart throughout his career. His pure qualities were on full display when he wrote what I feel is the theme song for not only the Kentucky Derby, but the sport as a whole.
By the way, we have a beautiful colt to watch, and he is bred to be a star. I will wake up tomorrow, Lord willing, and dare to share the next of life's experiences. Regardless of the curveballs we're thrown, for me, it just keeps getting better by the day on what is turning out to be the roadtrip of a lifetime.
Toby Turrell
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