The tragedy of philly Eight Belles’ heroic run in the Kentucky Derby—and euthanasia immediately following her two broken ankles—is not a random event in the so-called “Sport of Kings.”

Injured human athletes who perform the incredible are carried off the field.  Injured equine athletes who do the same get shot in the head.

Here’s the description from the Boston Globe about Eight Belles’ final agonizing minutes:

She didn’t have a front leg to stand on to be splinted and hauled off in the ambulance, so she was immediately euthanized,” said track veterinarian Larry Bramlage. “Catastrophic injuries are something that we occasionally see in one [ankle] - it’s not terribly unheard of. But in all my years of racing I’ve never seen it happen at the end of the race or during the race.”

Dirt tracks like Churchill Downs are literally murder on race horses, according to the blog, Kentucky Derby:

Many blame danger of dirt tracks. California had ordered softer synthetic surfaces for every track because 154 horses had to be euthanized in the 2004-05 racing season. So many horses died on the Del Mar track that trainers called it a “killing field.

And long before Barry Bonds’ head went to a size ten from alleged steroid use, trainer and owners have been doping horses for ages.  But while the human athletes can chose to destroy their bodies with drugs, their horsey counterparts have no such free will.  And doping isn’t some mobbed up thing of the past.  It still happens today.

Earlier this year, ESPN reported about illegal doping being part of a multi-million dollar illegal gambling ring:

Thoroughbred owner Gerald Uvari and trainer Greg Martin were two of the 17 people indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges Thursday in Manhattan federal court as part of an alleged multimillion-dollar illegal gambling operation that brokered more than $200 million in bets on horse racing and other sports and fixed a race at Aqueduct in 2003…

The indictment said one of Uvari’s partners, David Applebaum, who formerly held a license as a Thoroughbred owner, participated in a scheme to fix a race at Aqueduct by what the indictment calls “horse doping.”

And last year in New York state court, a father and son admitted doping harness racing horses.

A father and son have admitted that they injected harness horses at Saratoga Raceway with cobra snake venom in what officials say is the first horse-doping plea in Saratoga County.  William Barrack 68, and his son, Keith, 43, of Beacon, Dutchess County, pleaded guilty to one count each of interference with a domestic animal, a felony. They were originally indicted on two felony counts of first degree scheming to defraud and fifth degree conspiracy in addition to misdemeanor counts.

 

Essentially the only difference between horse racing and dog fighting is that the exploitation of horses by white people for profit is acceptable and the exploitation of dogs by black people for profit is unacceptable.  Both are dirty, corrupt, and unrepenant sports that kill its athletes on a fairly regular basis.

Dog fighting can’t be made “clean” and humane.

And, so it seems, can’t horse racing be made clean and humane either.

It’s time to euthanize this “sport.”  How many more Eight Belles and Barbaros and lesser horses have to run beautifully but suffer horribly before we humans decide to act?

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