Race horse Euthanized after Breaking Two Front Ankles

[dragon wench]

This made my blood just boil... As far as I'm concerned both the owner who ordered the horse be put down and the vet who did it should be euthanized themselves!
Yes, I know it is extremely expensive for a horse to recover from an accident like this, and the poor animal would need to be put in a sling or something until it had fully healed...
I'm highly skeptical at the claims that there would have been no way to save the filly.

We keep humans on life support when they are all but braindead... we spend 1000s upon 1000s of dollars trying to keep the terminally ill breathing as long as possible... We scream and object to allowing people to simply die if they wish to end their suffering....

There's something very wrong about all of this.


May 3 07:43 PM US/Eastern
By BETH HARRIS
AP Racing Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The filly Eight Belles finished second behind favorite Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, then collapsed with two broken front ankles and was euthanized after crossing the wire.

The field of 20 horses was galloping out around the first turn at Churchill Downs when Eight Belles suddenly went down on both front legs and jockey Gabriel Saez slid off.

"When we passed the wire I stood up," said Saez, a first-time Derby rider. "She started galloping funny. I tried to pull her up. That's when she went down."

An equine ambulance reached her near the second turn and tended to the filly.

"There was no possible way to save her," on-call veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage said. "She broke both front ankles. That's a bad injury."

Trainer Larry Jones and owner Rick Porter decided to run Eight Belles against the boys in America's greatest race despite her never having done so before. She brought in solid credentials with a four-race winning streak and then ran gallantly.

The dark gray filly also was entered in Friday's Kentucky Oaks for fillies. Jones, however, won that race with Proud Spell and set himself up to pull off the double.

Eight Belles was the first filly since 1999 to run in the Derby; the last to win was Winning Colors in 1988. She didn't press 2-1 favorite Big Brown down the stretch, and he drew away to a 4 3/4-length victory.

Still, Eight Belles was a sentimental pick by 157,770 fans, second- largest crowd in Derby history. She even had the support of Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton. Eight Belles repaid their faith by returning $10.60 and $6.40.

Jockey Kent Desormeaux and Big Brown galloped by Eight Belles in her waning moments.

"This horse showed you his heart and Eight Belles showed you her life for our enjoyment today," he said. "I'm deeply sympathetic to that team for their loss."

At first, Jones didn't realize anything was wrong until he began walking back to the stable area and saw Saez aboard another horse.

"There was no way to save her," a visibly upset Jones said. "She couldn't stand."

Bramlage said the fracture in Eight Belles' left front ankle opened the skin, allowing contamination to set in. At least one of her sesamoid bones was broken, too.

"She didn't have a front leg to stand on to be splinted and hauled off in the ambulance, so she was immediately euthanized," he said. "In my years in racing, I have never seen this happen at the end of the race or during the race."

Eight Belles appeared to be galloping out normally around the first turn and was headed into the start of the backstretch when she dropped without warning. The crowd was busy high-fiving and celebrating and because of the distance from the grandstand, many didn't realize tragedy had struck.

"Everyone breathed a big sigh of relief that everyone came around the track cleanly and then all of a sudden it happened," Bramlage said.

"Horses really tire. They are taking a lot of load on their skeleton because their muscles are fatigued. The difficult thing to explain with her is it's so far after the wire, and she was easing down like you'd like to see a horse slow down by that point. I don't have an explanation for it."

[galraen]

I think your over-reacting on this particlar event DW, that horse was worth an awful lot of money, even if she never raced again.

I'm not arguing against your basic point, but I think in this instance if the horse could have been saved she would have been.

[Claudius]

Reminds me of my favorite movie, The Sea Biscuit

[dragon wench]

I don't know...maybe...
I guess when I see things like this, it sort of hits a pressure valve for me.

Plus.. the racing industry doesn't exactly have the best track record in the world....
And is it even ethical to breed horses for racing like this?

There is some better information here:
Eight Belles' Death Sparks Controversy, Demise Of Filly In Kentucky Derby Prompts Debate Over Image And Safety Of Horse Racing - CBS News
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/sport ... les&st=nyt
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/ ... ref=slogin
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/sport ... les&st=nyt


Now, I generally have very little use for PETA, I tend to view them as a bunch of publicity-seeking wingnuts, but in this particular instance...

[rmemmett84]

Do you remember Barbarosa from a few years ago? He had 1 broken leg and they tried everything to keep him allow but to no avail. All they ended up doing is prolonging the poor animals misery. Believe me when I tell you I hate nothing more then people who are cruel to animals but I'm not sure this is the case here. By the way, I also believe people should be able to die if they want as well. If they can't be cured then they should be able to go out however they want.

[galraen]

I don't know...maybe...
I guess when I see things like this, it sort of hits a pressure valve for me.

I can relate to that, and as I wrote, I'm not faulting your basic argument.

This paragraph from the first story you linked to raises a very valid point

Her death has 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.

I think that race horse are bred too much for speed and not enough for soundness, and I think this accident and the one to Barbaro two years ago are at least a partial result of that. Light wieght bones make for lightweight horses, pack on muscle and they go faster, but those lightweight bones can't handle the stress all the time.

I also question the surface that they run on in the States, dirt instead of turf, natural turf I mean as is the case over here. Artificial turf would likely make things even worse IMO, just ask any athlete who's played on the stuff. They have made progress with artificial surfaces, but I question whether they've made enough.

The racing industry the world over doesn't have a very good rep, although with the value of the animals, in terms of breeding stock as well as racing, would have caused them to be somewhat caring you'd have thought. However I can't understand why jockeys not only are allowed to whip the horses, but are actually expected to! There have been cases over here where jockeys have been penalised for not 'riding out' their mount due to the fact they didn't use the whip enough. To me that's completely unacceptable, and a sign of what happens to morality when you stir big bucks into the mix.

I hear what you say about PETA, we have animal rights groups in the UK that belong in the funny farm. They are so dumb they don't even realise how much they are undermining their own (often very good) argument.

[Scayde]

Sis, I know news like this is hard to hear and harder to understand. When I was younger I had a horse, a young Thoroughbred who broke her rear leg in a jump. The vet told us she needed to be put down. I was hysterical. My Dad spent thousands trying to save her. She spent weeks in a sling from shich she suffered terrible skin breakdown on her belly from the weight on the sling. She was in a great deal of pain. After all of that, when she was let down from the sling, her leg refractured because of where the injury was. She had to be put down anyway. It still breaks my heart to think of what she went through and then still had to be put down anyway.
Horses are different than many other animals because of the amount of weight they cary on just one toe. It is rare that one can be saved if their leg is badly broken. And galraen is right, Thoroughbreds are being bred lighter and lighter for speed. Their bones are so fine that they are easily injured just running. These horses cost upward of 100,000 to 1,000,000 champions are even more. If she could have been salvaged even for a broodmare with her bloodline she would have been.

[dragon wench]

Hiya Sis

*sigh*

I wish then that horse breeding were regulated so that they were not so light... But of course...it's big money, so wishing anything like that is a complete pipedream.

[galraen]

Do they have jump racing in the US or Canada? Over here they have what is called National Hunt racing, which entails jumping the horses over fences or hurdles, the most famous/notorious being the Grand National. The stress on the horses is far greater than on the flat, and for that reason traditionally Hunters were bread for sturdiness and endurance, but that's been changing, and now there is more emphasis on breeding for speed,

The results have been inevitable, with more fatalaties occurring. In a four day span two years ago nine (that's right 9) horses were killed at the Cheltenham festival, which is an annual National Hunt meeting that marks the end of the Hunt season. It provoked a major debate, but in the end nothing meaningful was done of course.

Same thing happens over race fixing, a lot of tut-tutting, and paltry slaps on wrists, but nothing ever meaningful is done to stop it. The Jockey Club is more interested in covering up than actually addressing the problems unfortunately.