Talk about being rode hard and put away wet.
Yours truly is still getting the whip from some members of the horse racing fraternity for having the audacity to pen a column sympathetic to Eight Belles after she tragically broke both her front ankles in the aftermath of the Kentucky Derby.
Perhaps to the dismay of animal rights activists, the column in question didn't rail for the end of horse racing. Neither did it paint owners and trainers as evil or cruel. It certainly, however, stressed that Eight Belles' death is an unwelcome but calculated cost of doing business, which the horse racing industry undoubtedly is. Yet what struck me about many of the e-mails and letters to the editor was the often visceral anger expressed by self-described "horse people" at the column's content.
I'll spare you the details, but the words "idiotic," "ignorant," "anthropomorphic drivel" and "insensitive ass" were involved, the last review written by a 14-year-old girl.
So my first reaction is: wait a minute. I just wrote a column that could only clearly be digested by a rational, unbiased person as sympathetic to a horse. Yet the most venomous attackers were "horse people." What gives? It slowly dawned on me, however, that they weren't angry that I was sympathetic to the horse. No, they were angry because I wasn't more sympathetic to THEM.
My mistake. I apologize that after witnessing the sad end to a beautiful animal, my first reaction wasn't to pat the horse racing industry on the back, or parrot the typical response of "It's tragic. It happens. It hurts. But what are you going to do?"
But those who strongly objected were correct about one thing: this writer is ignorant of the horse racing industry. And that seems to be the universal gist of their argument, not just here but anywhere such fatalities occur. Anyone with the temerity to question the validity of such events is promptly shouted down by horse racing insiders who claim they have the best interests of the horse at heart and anybody who disagrees is a moron or worse.
In fact, one reader who described the column as "shrill and shallow" was kind enough to send along an article on the incident he believed was far more "enlightening." And it certainly was.
Written by a seasoned track veteran and author named Edward McLelland, the article in Salon.com reasoned that Eight Belles didn't die because she was a filly in over her head with colts. "Eight Belles died because horses are oddly designed creatures," McLelland wrote. "They have no muscles below the knee, and their hooves are essentially nails. One thoroughbred owner I know says horses "run on their middle fingers."
"Thoroughbreds are especially fragile," McLelland added, "carrying enormous bodies on legs as spindly as a Kenyan marathoners."
Really? I profess to have been ignorant of such information. Neither was I aware, at least prior to Eight Belles' demise, that these same horses are the most susceptible to euthanization because they are the least likely to recover, given their genetic makeup.
So there you have it in a nutshell: The breed of horse on the planet that is the most fragile and vulnerable to serious, life-threatening injury are the very horses that make up Triple Crown fields.
Makes you wonder why, in an age where sheep can be cloned, a more racing-friendly horse couldn't be bred. Maybe it would be slower and less attractive, but it wouldn't be vulnerable to serious injury or death either. Then everybody wins, right?
As for figures, it's estimated two horses face career-ending injuries on the race track every day, and there have been on average 1.5 deaths for every 1,000 starts in American racing, although there doesn't seem to be many exact numbers on the fatality rate, which in itself is a bit troubling.
However, the quest for speed is not surprising. Horse racing is a performance-based business so there is unquestionable pressure to push the envelope -- not unlike any human oriented sport.
As McLelland pointed out, acclaimed handicapper Andrew Beyer noted in a recent Washington Post column that, "Because buyers want horses with speed, breeders have filled the thoroughbred species with the genes of fast but unsound horses, As this change in the breeding world took place, the sport was allowing the use of pain-killers and other medications that are forbidden in most other countries. They allow infirm horses to achieve success, go to stud and pass on their infirmities to the next generation."
And these are experts, don't forget, who don't seem caught up in the tiresome blame game of "You don't know anything" versus "Horse racing is evil."
It's also worth noting that the industry is attempting to cut back on serious injuries. For example, all race tracks in California are being converted from dirt to synthetic surfaces after some studies concluded the latter would be less traumatic on the animals.
But then none other than the trainer of Derby winner Big Brown reared at such a move. Why?
"I would be completely lost training and racing on it," Rick Dutrow told Associated Press Tuesday.
Well, geez, Rick. Wouldn't want to put you out. Good to see you're looking out for No. 1, though.
One last thing. For all the venomous messages passed along by those "horse people" upset with the column, there was not one single complaint from a horse. Can you believe that? Not so much as a single e-mail.
Guess they weren't as offended as all of those, well, you know who you are.
randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca
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