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Category: Readers' Opinions

Just an accident

May 08

7:24 AM

Re 'Eight Belles' fall rings public alarm' (editorial, May 6):What happened to Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby was a high-profile freak accident. She galloped out a quarter mile off the rail before collapsing. Dr. Larry Bramlage, an on-call veterinarian, looked at the track where she fell and could not find it at fault.

Why Eight Belles? Why other ill-fated horses such as Charismatic, Demons Begone, Flip Sal, Go for Wand, Landaluce, Ruffian and Exceller?

I agree, there are problems with current breeding programs. Once, horses could not run four times in a month and stay sound.

But the editorial failed to mention how the industry is trying to change the tracks. What about the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, which saves former race horses from slaughter?

Horses carry close to 2,000 pounds on small, spindly legs. Eight Belles was a tragic loss, but not because of ignorance.

Barry L. Craig

Virginia Beach

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A question for equine experts

Submitted by Wm D Tabor DDS on Sun, 05/11/2008 at 10:39 am.

I know little about riding horses and nothing about tracing them, but a question occurs to me based on simple physics.

Could this accident have been the result of slowing down too quickly after crossing the finish line?

Just as when we brake a car, it would seem likely that as the horse decelerates, weight will shift to the front legs as it does to the front wheels of a car. Could this shift of weight forward at high speed have been the cause of the fracture, and if so, could such accidents be prevented in the future by slowing the horses more gradually after the line is crossed, perhaps over the course of another full lap?

On criticism is intended, I simply wonder if there is a simple way to reduce such risks.