When we say sport is war, we don’t usually think of horse racing, but reading this, I can’t help but think that horse racing is pretty tough. From FOX Sports:
Eight Belles is dead. She broke two ankles after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby, and since horses can’t live after that kind of injury (for various reasons), she was euthanized on the track.
Eight Belles is dead. It is strangely appropriate that the second-place finisher is the one who died.
If Big Brown had broken his ankles after winning, he would have been the biggest story in America this morning. There would be many calls to rethink the sport of horse racing. There would be a national conversation about whether horse racing is a worthy sporting endeavor or unfit for a civilized society.
If a horse had broken his ankles after finishing last, it would have been one paragraph in newspaper stories — a footnote. Fans would not have paid much attention, because it would be easy to separate the death from the reason we watch the Kentucky Derby — to see who wins.
But when the second-place finisher breaks down and must be euthanized on the track, it becomes a nasty little thought that you can’t get out of your head. You might just find yourself blocking it out and concentrating on the winner, but that will only bring guilt.
Watch more:
Time Warner takes a page from the book of “give people what they want”
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Duke in Top College Programs:
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I love how quickly Zidane-ing has become a verb! This story is ridiculous…
LONDON - Jockey Paul O’Neill apologized Tuesday for head-butting his horse at a race last weekend.
“I would just like to say to the public that I’m very sorry they had to see such a thing,” O’Neill said in a statement. “I’ve never done it before and it will never happen again.”
City Affair was being unruly in the parade ring, ultimately throwing O’Neill. The jockey got to his feet and grabbed the reins, pulling the horse to him, before lowering the butt of his helmet into it.
Read the rest of the article here from Yahoo! News
A hero and his horse won the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. Undefeated Barbaro stormed into the lead at the top of the stretch and won convincingly to give trainer Michael Matz his first Derby victory and jockey Edgar Prado his first winning ride. Matz’s big day came nearly 17 years after he led three children to safety following the crash of United flight 232 from Denver to Chicago into an Iowa cornfield.
Read more.
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