Eight Belles, a three year old filly owned by Richard Porter of Fox Hills Farm in Hobe Sound, Florida made history on Saturday by coming in second in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. She was the thirty-ninth filly to enter the race and only the fifth to place or show during the derby’s 134 year run.
Sadly, during her cool-down following the win, she collapsed.
Suffering from breaks in both her front ankles, the dark gray thoroughbred was euthanized on the track by a staff veterinarian. Churchill downs has offered her owners a place on the track to inter her ashes; however, the staff at Fox Hills have yet to comment.
The injury and death have put a dark cloud over the world of horse racing and the derby itself which posted record television ratings on Saturday.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals posted a statement on its website shortly after the race, urging supporters to sign a petition directed at the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority, urging them to make “sweeping reforms that would prevent needless, preventable suffering and cruelty in the racing industry.”
Their proposed reforms include age restrictions on horses allowed to race and making changes to racing surfaces to softer materials. Both these proposals, PETA says, will present less chance for injury to all race horses.
The organization is also calling for the suspension of Eight Belles’ trainer Larry Jones and jockey Gabriel Saez, from further racing and for the banishment of whipping as a racing practice.
Jones feels that PETA is out of line and, “trying to capitalize on a sad situation.”
Other critics are looking to the thoroughbred industry as part of the problem. Andrew Beyer, columnist for the Washington Post writing as “someone who loves the game” wrote in his commentary on Sunday that “America’s breeding industry is producing increasingly fragile thoroughbreds.”
PETA has also been at the top of the list of speculators that performance-enhancing drugs like steroids may have been the cause for the filly’s collapse. Eight Belles’ owner, trainer and jockey continue to deny the allegation. The filly’s body was submitted for an autopsy complete with drug testing before being cremated to remove all suspicion.
“We’re being accused of steroid abuse because she was so large,” Jones said in a press conference Tuesday, “I guarantee there were no steroids ever on the horse.”
