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Rest in Peace

Black Beauty

Horses DO race each other for fun! I see it across the street once a week or so. It IS in their nature. (They didn’t change his name to “Turbo” for nothing!)

Before the Derby I spent the day yesterday listening to commentaries by horse experts. Everyone who mentioned Eight Belles height also made some kind of a elusion to her weight or musculature in comparison. There was some kind of instinctive “horse sense” going around about her all along… but in the end, no one can ever know. All they could do was make their best guess and it was an educated guess.

She did place second so one can make the argument that she probably wanted to be there and was enjoying herself until she got hurt.

I still don’t think I’ll be watching this phenomenon next year.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/more/05/03/bc.us.rac.kentuckyderby.belles.ap/index.html?eref=T1

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Boy, did Eight Belles hang with the boys!

All that heart and her gallant fight, however, ended in the worst of all possible ways: a breakdown, an ambulance on the track. And, with no other choice, she was euthanized by injection.

The magnitude of what happened was slow to reach the fans at Churchill Downs. Not only was a horse down, but it was the filly. And horse racing -- with the memory of Barbaro still fresh and the death of a horse coming only a day earlier on Kentucky Oaks Day -- had to confront grief one more time.

"There was no way to save her. She couldn't stand," trainer Larry Jones said. "She ran an incredible race. She ran the race of her life."

Jones' voice broke and tears glistened in his eyes as he considered his barn without Eight Belles' head poking out of her stall.

Eight Belles could have easily been the wagering favorite in Friday's Kentucky Oaks, an all-girl showcase. But Jones and Porter decided to run her against the boys despite the fact that she had never done so before. She had, after all,solid credentials with a four-race winning streak.

Afterward, Jones disputed any suggestion that Eight Belles had no business taking on the boys.

"It wasn't that, it wasn't the distance, it wasn't a big bumping match for her, she never got touched," he said. "She passed all those questions ... with flying colors. The race was over, all we had to do was pull up, come back and be happy. It just didn't happen."

If Eight Belles had labored to the finish line and been falling farther behind Big Brown in the closing strides, then Jones said he would have "really second-guessed ourselves severely and kicked ourselves in the pants."

But she hit the wire strongly and galloped around the turn without a hitch, leaving the trainer in the white cowboy hat feeling proud.  
"We were ecstatic," he said.

For a time, anyway.

Winning 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.