Kentucky Derby: Horse safety is ‘a very big issue’

Eight Belles' televised breakdown fuels debate over track surfaces, breeding

Richard Rosenblatt | The Associated Press

5/4/2008 - 5/5/08

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A day after Big Brown blazed across the finish line, the snapshot of Eight Belles down on the dirt set off a raging debate that extended far beyond the Kentucky Derby: Is horse racing now facing an image crisis?

With the memory of Barbaro still fresh, Eight Belles' catastrophic breakdown Saturday raised thorny issues about the whole thoroughbred industry, including track safety, whether fillies should be allowed to run against colts and whether horses are bred too much for speed and not for soundness.

A prominent animal-rights group got involved Sunday, too, criticizing Eight Belles' jockey for whipping the horse and saying the second-place prize should be revoked. But to horse people, it wasn't all that simple.

"To make it safer, don't race the horses, don't train them, then they'll live good lives out on the farm," Big Brown trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. said. "But you have to train them for races ... They have to be asked to run and sometimes in a particular minute, they're asked to run when they're not ready to give it, and then it hurts."

While Big Brown's bid to become the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years will certainly gain momentum in the next couple of weeks, Eight Belles and the sight of fans crying in the stands remained a focal point Sunday.

"It's difficult to accept, and we don't have all the answers," Scott Palmer, a veterinarian who helped attend to Barbaro on the track at Pimlico, said Sunday.

Now, there are more questions about track safety.

Barbaro's demise two years ago helped push forward the installation of synthetic surfaces to replace traditional dirt tracks at several tracks, including Keeneland, Santa Anita, Arlington Park, Hollywood Park, Golden Gate Fields, Del Mar, Turfway and Presque Isle.

A new on-track injury reporting program seems to indicate the surface is helping.

Reports by veterinarians at 34 tracks across the country between June 2007 and early this year showed synthetic tracks averaged 1.47 fatalities per 1,000 starts, compared with 2.03 fatalities per 1,000 starts for horses that ran on dirt.

"This is a very big issue and needs to be discussed," two-time Derby winning trainer Nick Zito said.

"You're changing the whole game. Big Brown ran on dirt yesterday, he's going for history. You can't tell me the Polytrack is history. It's not yet, there isn't enough data yet."

That's not saying Zito and other horsemen aren't interested in making racetracks safer.

"If you told me, 'Look, we have a device that these horses can run on pillows and never get hurt the rest of lives,' I'd say, 'Where do I sign?' " Zito said. "There's injuries on the Polytrack, too. Now you see why I'm saying it's a big issue."

While breakdowns always have been a part of racing, there has been more of an outcry lately calling for drastic action.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals issued a statement Sunday calling for the suspension of Eight Belles jockey Gabriel Saez. The group also asked for the "revocation of the second place prize."

Eight Belles trainer Larry Jones disputed any suggestion that his horse had no business taking on the boys.

"It wasn't that, it wasn't the distance, it wasn't a big bumping match for her, she never got touched," he said.