Eight Belles Collapse Gives Pause

The human passion for sports most likely will not fade. Athletic tragedy hits every sport. Sometimes, blame is justified. Is there blame for Eight Belles Derby death?

Big Brown breathtakingly dominated and won the 134th Kentucky Derby May 3. Filly Eight Belles gallantly chased him, then inexplicably collapsed after finishing second, and was lost.

Athletes collapse. Sports are about gladiatorship.

Horse racing will not go away any more than will baseball, or basketball, or the truly "manly", inhumane, gladiator-arena-spectacle of football. Which we love to watch.

Violence is part of our sporting culture. It won't go away. Alas, it is the human way to risk breakage and adversity, even violent endings.

Do we mistreat and abuse horses to get them to compete, or to refine their natural instinct to run? There's a small percentage of that, probably, as there is a percentage of humans who choose to abuse their athletic bodies to compete on a higher level.

We must attack the percentage, not the whole.

Where is the wrong? The blame? The wrong is not in these sports themselves. The wrong is in those who give in to the temptation to alter human, or animal chemistry to enhance performances. Ability is natural. Correct fuel -- food -- is our natural available enhancement.

Eight Belles suffered an underlying cause of collapse. Horses do not run in a stride that requires them to put both front legs forward at the same time. Eight Belles was in distress that caused her to collapse forward with both ankles hitting the ground at the same time and unable to hold her falling weight.

I've seen horrific breakage. Compound fractures. Flailing legs. Ruffian. Union City. I've never seen a horse still able to stride correctly break two legs at once. Barbaro broke one leg and continued to run in correct cadence on three other legs. So did Ruffian, amazingly. And Union City.

Eight Belles collapsed before the breakage.