Eight Belles' death renews horse racing questions - Game on - USATODAY.com Page 1 of 2 By Tom Weir & Reid Cherner « Responding to the death of Eight Belles | Eight Belles' death renews horse racing questions For horse racing aficianados, the 4 3/4- length victory by Big Brown at the Kentucky Derby fueled hopes that thoroughbred racing will see its first Triple Crown winner in three decades. But for the millions of casual followers of the Sport of Kings, the wish was likely simpler: Can we have a big-time race day without seeing a valiant four-legged competitor crippled and condemned to death? Eight Belles was the lastest high-profile thoroughbred to run itself to death. For a moment, the gallant filly seemed to have earned a place alongside Danica Patrick in what was shaping up as a great year for women in racing. But then the news spread ear-to-ear that Saturday's Kentucky Derby runnerup had snapped two ankles and was euthanized as she lay in the very Churchill Downs dirt where she had galloped to greatness. We don't know what Eight Belles means on a horse farm, but in nautical terms "eight bells" marks the end of one's watch shift. And that was the finality Eight Belles met Saturday, although the view of her demise was blocked from the crowd of 150,000-plus by the sanitizing positioning of ambulances. The Lexington Herald-Leader provides tape of Eight Belles trainer Larry Jones saying his horse "ran the race of her life," and he adds that "she was glad to do it." We'll suggest there's a slight leap of faith there. Jones told The Louisville Courier-Journal that "It wasn't the race. It wasn't the fact that 19 boys were in there. She ran. She never got bumped. She never did anything. She could have done this race with Shetland ponies. It wasn't in the race where it happened." Eight Belles' death was not a horse racing fluke. Two years ago Barbaro shattered bones at the Preakness and began the long and futile rehabilitation process that ultimately ended in an early death. George Washington was given the death needle in the 2007 Breeders Cup. Go For Wand had a horrific Breeders' Cup death at Belmont in 1990. In all, at the 1990 Breeders Cup at Belmont, three horses were "put down," thoroughbred racing's convenient term for a Kervorkian-like exit from the equine world. Saturday, for Eight Belles, "There was no reason to wait," said Dr. Larry Bramlage, the American Association vet on call. Bramlage, who has been working at race tracks since 1975, said he had never seen such an injury. "Sometimes, rarely, you might see a horse suffer something in one leg," Bramlage said. "But I've never seen it happen in both like that." Friday at Churchill Downs was equally bleak. During the seven-horse Alysheba Stakes, Chelokee suffered a right front condylar fracture that affected the stability in his ankle and threw jockey Ramon Dominguez. The injury was closely compared to Barbaro's. http://blogs.usatoday.com/gameon/2008/05/eight-belles-de.html 5/4/2008 Eight Belles' death renews horse racing questions - Game on - USATODAY.com Page 2 of 2 So, how many other equine deaths are there every year that go unnoticed in a sport that's largely ignored on a day-to-day basis? Let's just take one track, like Del Mar near San Diego: 55 deaths from 2004- 06, says the San Diego Union-Tribune. Bottom line: A direct comparison of Michael Vick to the thoroughbred industry isn't fair. Horse trainers do not pit their racers against each other in a throat-biting battle to the death. But the death rate of top thouroughbreds does have to make one wonder why this sport seemingly never gets a review from the legal system, given how many of its superstars have gone straight from the finish line to the burial ground. If Vick has to live in a cell at Leavenworth, surely some people in the moneyed world of horse racing need to supply some answers. (Eight Belles is "put down"/AP photo/Brian Bohannon) http://blogs.usatoday.com/gameon/2008/05/eight-belles-de.html 5/4/2008.