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I always enjoy the Kentucky Derby, even though I'm not much of a horse racing enthusiast, nor a gambling enthusiast. As everyone says, it is the most exciting 2 minutes in sports.

 

I felt really sad though at the end when they had to put the 2nd place horse to sleep after she injured both her ankles :confused

 

Congratulations to Big Brown :thumbup He's had 4 starts. Guess how many races he has won? 4.

 

I'll be rooting for him in the preakness in 2 weeks! It's about time there was another triple crown winner.

i agree. why no one make big deal when they hurt horses like they did with vick and dogs. maybe cuz its white ppl?

 

The horse would have ended up with a horrible miserable life if it wasn't euthanized on the spot...

 

The difference between Horse racing and what Vick sponsored was this:

 

Vick sponsored dogs to fight to the death with one another... one way or another a dog was going to be seriously injured and/or killed

 

Horse racing, yes, the horses get hit with crops, but really, they aren't set out to physically harm/killl one another...

 

Also, bringing race into anything immediately weakens your point, a lot... a lot of jockeys and owners are of many different cultures

I find this to be somewhat of a cruel sport.

There's lots of people that aren't really into racing except for the Triple Crown races that agree with you. However, I don't. These animals are bred to run. If there was no sport they wouldn't be alive to begin with. Leave them out on a farm and what do they do....run...it's in their genes. They enjoy it. And sometimes they break a leg running around a tranquil field, because that's the nature of the beast. They are fragile animals. Hooved mammals, which means that if they break a leg, they can't stand, and they can't eat. Many, many more thoroughbred horses die while racing each other in open fields, or by taking a mis-step in a light gallop around the stable, than during a horse race. Bottom line is, if their was no sport, there would be no thoroughbred horses. It is a sad fact that 1 in a 10000 break a leg during a race, but you have to balance that against the hundreds of thousands of people employed in the sport.

Horse racing is no more cruel than any sport involving animals. The Vick thing, cock-fighting, these are not real sports and I'm not counting them. That's cruel. But what about dog racing, or the Ididarod dog race. Dogs occasionally die or get injured in frisbee competitions. Dogs don't have it in their blood to catch a frisbee, or to pull a sled.

Believe me, I'm sad whenever these things happen, and the incident in the Kentucky Derby was particularly tough. But the horse lived for years and died after it's greatest triumph. It's not a cruel sport.

I watched it. Always sad to see a horse go down. Can't help but tug at your heart strings, they're such majestic animals. It was after the race was over too, really bizarre injury.

 

The horse galloped another quarter of a mile before it went down. I think it had some kind of heart trouble, so maybe the strain of the race eventually took its toll. Then she suddenly collapsed, which is when she broke both ankles.

 

One of the vets who attended to the horse said he'd never seen anything like it.

 

Some of the issues that are being talked about with horse racing in general is the use of steroids, and also that the breeding for speed that occurs is often at the expense of other things like durability.

Yep I watched it. Always sad to see a horse go down. It was after the race, wasn't it? They didn't mention a fall during the actual race so I think it had some kind of heart trouble right after it was over and collapsed, which is when she broke her ankles.

It was after the race, well after the race. About a minute. Knowing horses and seeing this one on the ground I thought "heart" as well, and was hoping for something lesser, like a hydration problem. I've seen many horses fall from the heat here in Florida(when I say many I mean about 6 in 25 years down here), and they recover quickly after being hosed down and given some water. But in this case it was a freak accident. I've never seen anything like it. And the veterinarian(Dr Bramladge, one of the top vets in the business) also said that he's never seen anything like this in his 40 year career. It was not heart. BOTH horses ankles broke on the same stride, as it was slowing down, almost to a brisk walk pace, as I say a minute after the race. If it was heart the horse just would have died on the spot. But she fought to regain her footing after the fall and before being put to sleep. RIP.

I've watched the race for probably 10 years, and that was the first time I have seen this happen. Really sad.

 

I think that Big Brown has a legitimate chance to finally win the Triple Crown.

I've watched the race for probably 10 years, and that was the first time I have seen this happen. Really sad.

 

I think that Big Brown has a legitimate chance to finally win the Triple Crown.

It is very sad. If you had been watching for the last 100 years, you wouldn't have seen this. It's never happened before. A few horses have suffered some injury, but ultimately recovered and gone on to to a long fruitful life on stud duty :whistle .

I agree that Big Brown has a very good chance to win the Triple Crown, but it's not a foregone conclusion. Asking a 3YO horse to run 3 grueling races in 5 weeks, at long distances that they've never seen before, and in most cases will never see again, is not an easy accomplishment. Big Brown has cracked hooves. That's why he's only raced 4 times. It's unheard of for a horse to win the Kentucky Derby after 3 starts as he did. Last and only done in 1915. Normally horses need at least 6 races before the Derby. They're smart enough to learn from past experience, and dealing with adversity, like avoiding a horse that gets in their way. Big Brown has never faced adversity in his scant career. Plus, Big Brown has never had to race back after 2 or 3 weeks. He's previously had at least a month between each start. But he is a superb champion, no doubt, yet the bad feet worry me. I personally hope that he's sold to an Arab sheikh this week and retires to the good life on stud duty. There is some concern amongst the horse fraternity that he's susceptible to injury, and his trainer is not well regarded. He's a convicted cheat, for drugging horses with medications that mask the pain....no matter how strong the heart is, or how fast the horse is, that's a recipe for disaster.

Racehorses from birth to death are treated better than most humans are. It's a wonderful life, actually. There is nothing cruel about it.

 

As for the euthanization...let me remind you that PETA is making a fuss over this and they euthanize the vast majority of the animals they "adopt" so what happened really isn't much different. The owners/vets at the track also did have the common decency to give the horse a lethal injection (it seems). I've been to tracks where the horse was shot on site. I'm assuming that the Derby is higher class than that.

I find this to be somewhat of a cruel sport.

There's lots of people that aren't really into racing except for the Triple Crown races that agree with you. However, I don't. These animals are bred to run. If there was no sport they wouldn't be alive to begin with. Leave them out on a farm and what do they do....run...it's in their genes. They enjoy it. And sometimes they break a leg running around a tranquil field, because that's the nature of the beast. They are fragile animals. Hooved mammals, which means that if they break a leg, they can't stand, and they can't eat. Many, many more thoroughbred horses die while racing each other in open fields, or by taking a mis-step in a light gallop around the stable, than during a horse race. Bottom line is, if their was no sport, there would be no thoroughbred horses. It is a sad fact that 1 in a 10000 break a leg during a race, but you have to balance that against the hundreds of thousands of people employed in the sport.

Horse racing is no more cruel than any sport involving animals. The Vick thing, cock-fighting, these are not real sports and I'm not counting them. That's cruel. But what about dog racing, or the Ididarod dog race. Dogs occasionally die or get injured in frisbee competitions. Dogs don't have it in their blood to catch a frisbee, or to pull a sled.

Believe me, I'm sad whenever these things happen, and the incident in the Kentucky Derby was particularly tough. But the horse lived for years and died after it's greatest triumph. It's not a cruel sport.

 

Horse racing can be very cruel. Not to say it was a cause for the injury at the derby, but horses are often pumped full of anti-inflammatories and painkillers to make them run through injuries and are the root cause of many fatal accidents like what happened to Eight Belles.

I find this to be somewhat of a cruel sport.

There's lots of people that aren't really into racing except for the Triple Crown races that agree with you. However, I don't. These animals are bred to run. If there was no sport they wouldn't be alive to begin with. Leave them out on a farm and what do they do....run...it's in their genes. They enjoy it. And sometimes they break a leg running around a tranquil field, because that's the nature of the beast. They are fragile animals. Hooved mammals, which means that if they break a leg, they can't stand, and they can't eat. Many, many more thoroughbred horses die while racing each other in open fields, or by taking a mis-step in a light gallop around the stable, than during a horse race. Bottom line is, if their was no sport, there would be no thoroughbred horses. It is a sad fact that 1 in a 10000 break a leg during a race, but you have to balance that against the hundreds of thousands of people employed in the sport.

Horse racing is no more cruel than any sport involving animals. The Vick thing, cock-fighting, these are not real sports and I'm not counting them. That's cruel. But what about dog racing, or the Ididarod dog race. Dogs occasionally die or get injured in frisbee competitions. Dogs don't have it in their blood to catch a frisbee, or to pull a sled.

Believe me, I'm sad whenever these things happen, and the incident in the Kentucky Derby was particularly tough. But the horse lived for years and died after it's greatest triumph. It's not a cruel sport.

 

Horse racing can be very cruel. Not to say it was a cause for the injury at the derby, but horses are often pumped full of anti-inflammatories and painkillers to make them run through injuries and are the root cause of many fatal accidents like what happened to Eight Belles.

True that drugs are a problem in the sport, but on the other hand they're a problem, and a killer, in almost every sport. I think most of us know the history of football players who took drugs. Baseball players as well, time will tell what effect the steroids have.

...In this particular case, drugs did not play a part. There are about 15% of the horses that run that are trained by trainers known as "juicers". But the trainer of Eight Belles is known as a clean trainer.

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The root cause is some combination of "poor breeding", and drugs, on top of the main inherent nature of the beast that makes them very fragile. See my earlier posts that delve deeper into the subject.

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