Eight Belles: What went wrong?

The 134th Kentucky Derby epitomized the highs and lows inherent in this sport. I was shedding tears of delight when my pick, Big Brown, roared under the wire in front. He overcame breaking from the far outside post, the 20 hole, a wide trip, quarter crack prone feet, a 24 mile an hour headwind in the stretch, and almost a hundred years of Derby history to win off only three career starts. More importantly, he also made two of my friends very happy, winning “their” first Derby for them. I was thrilled.

I was also surprised and pleased to see the filly Eight Belles run a game second, four and three-quarter lengths behind the winner, but still three and a half lengths clear of third place finisher Denis of Cork. I had thought her in over her head in the Derby field, and I was not at all displeased to have been proven wrong. Needless to say, I was absolutely shocked moments later when the commentators announced that she had gone down on the turn as she galloped out. Mercifully, the replay they showed was brief, and the filly was nearly out of the frame because the cameras were tracking Big Brown, but it was still clear to me that she had broken down badly in front. It’s a bizarre thing for a horse to breakdown well past the wire, but stranger still in this accident was the revelation that both of her front ankles had broken. She was euthanized right on the track.

Eight Belles’ tragic demise cast a pall over the race and has left everyone wondering just what went wrong. Fingers have been pointed at everyone and everything, ranging from the track, the jockey, the trainer, the horse shoes, drugs, and pedigree.

The subject of dirt versus synthetic surfaces is a complicated matter, and one for another day when I have more time for analysis, but I will say that polytrack is not the savior it was thought to be. There was a terrible spill at Hollywood Park just days ago on the cushion track that was eerily similar to Eight Belles’ fall. I am hearing about an increase in soft tissue injuries as well, and respiratory problems from kick-back. That said, the Churchill surface is notorious for being souped up, especially on Derby weekend. This year, torrential rains on Friday helped soften it, but more than a few horses have never been right again after running on it. Monarchos, anyone? But again, a subject for another day.

PETA’s attack on Gabriel Saez is laughable. Based on a funny head jerk from Eight Belles in the stretch, they seem to think that she broke down before the wire and that Saez whipped her when he ought to have been pulling her up. The holes in this so-called logic are numerous. The most obvious one is that a horse with a broken leg, or in this case, two broken legs, can not possibly gallop out another 3/8s of a mile. Another problem is a matter of practicality. No one in their right mind is going to encourage an injured animal moving at 35 to 40 miles an hour to keep running when the possibility of falling often results in catastrophic injury to both horse and rider. If nothing else, jockeys don’t want to break bones, puncture their lungs, crack their skulls, or otherwise damage themselves and lose riding time (which equals money) or worse, lose their life and/or the livelihood for their family. And that’s just the cold, hard logic. Most jockeys love horses and have bonds with their mounts and wouldn’t dream of not pulling them up when hurt. Just ask Edgar Prado. His face after Barbaro broke down said it all. You can’t tell me these men and women don’t care deeply about the horses.

As for the strange head jerk, Larry Jones, Eight Belle’s trainer, said after the Derby that that was just a funny quirk the filly had developed, especially if she was moving in toward the rail. I reviewed all of her races, and sure enough, I saw her swinging her head on several occasions---as she switched leads at the top of the stretch, as she moved over toward the rail from an outside path, and even in her last start before the Derby, just a few strides from the wire, as if she were looking at the crowd. It was an odd quirk, no doubt, but clearly not indicative of a mid-race injury.

And speaking of Larry Jones, I will lay some blame at his feet now. He seems to be genuinely grieved for Eight Belles, but I must ask why he never saw fit to give that enormous filly a break. Most classic bound two year-olds---heck, most two year-olds period---get a break over the winter, usually November through January or February, to grow into their frames and mature mentally and physically. Eight Belles never got a break. She raced 9/16/07, 10/15/07, 10/30/07, 11/30/07, 12/23/07, 1/21/08, 2/17/08, 3/16/08, 4/6/08, and 5/3/08, so only 2 to 4 weeks between races, and no break at all over the course of 9 months and 10 races. Obviously, Eight Belles had the endurance to run well in most of those starts, but her legs couldn’t hold up to that schedule despite her talent. What on earth was Jones thinking?! Especially knowing that she came from unsound stock.

After any high profile breakdown, the issue of pain-inhibiting drugs is brought up. As of May 8th, preliminary findings from Eight Belles’ necropsy showed no evidence of a heart attack or aneurysm. Results indicating any foreign substances in her blood will be forthcoming in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

And now the matter of shoes… Recent studies indicate that shoes with toe grabs are a significant factor in breakdowns, and the risk factor rises as the size of the grabs increase. When horses gallop on dirt, their feet slide just a bit, thus absorbing some of the concussion as their feet hit the track. Polytrack apparently absorbs and nullifies that slide, resulting in a harder impact for each foot. Grabs do the same thing when horses run on dirt---they give the horses a firmer grip on the surface and more confidence, but they also take away the impact-absorbing slide. Barbaro had grabs on his back feet when he broke down in the 2006 Preakness. Eight Belles had grabs on her front feet when she worked out before the Derby, and while I don’t know if she wore them in the Derby, wearing them in workouts surely didn’t do her any favors.

Add the problems listed above to the pedigree issue, and it begins to look like Eight Belles was an accident waiting to happen. Her sire, Unbridled’s Song, had soundness issues himself and was raced only lightly at 3 and 4. His name is practically synonymous with unsoundness, especially as it relates to his offspring, and many of them tend to be big like Eight Belles, which only compounds the problem. His sons and daughters are fast and precocious, but at what cost? A number of the most successful ones, Buddha for example, have retired early in their three year-old season because of problems. Or they have a few starts drawn out over 2 or 3 seasons because of chronic injuries like Eurosilver. And some, like What A Song, a grandson of Unbridled’s Song through Songandaprayer, set a world record for 2 furlongs but self-destructed in a morning workout. (And what, pray tell, is the point of breeding a TB to run 2 furlongs? Isn’t that why they breed Quarter Horses?)

So where does this leave us? There are serious issues that need to be addressed if this sport is going to survive. I think that breeding out unsound lines is of the utmost importance. We can make tracks, shoes, and training methods safer, but if the horses are already fragile to begin with, it’s pointless. The American Thoroughbred needs some hybrid vigor---outcrosses to less fashionable but sound lines and imports of new blood could go a long way. A number of good horses have come out of South America in recent years, bred from generations of American and European cast offs. We need to dip back into those lines and others around the world to infuse some stamina and hardiness back into the breed. I do think that the breeding industry needs to take a long, hard look at sires of precocious but fragile horses and try to cull the worst offenders. I would go so far as to suggest gelding a number of them outright.

In the wake of the very public Derby tragedy, the Jockey Club, the NTRA, and a group of jockeys are planning a summit discuss safety in racing. They plan to “review every facet of equine health, including breeding practices, medication, the rules of racing and track surfaces, and to recommend actions to be taken by the industry to improve the health and safety of Thoroughbreds.” It’s an encouraging start, but they had damn well better act on their findings. If this ends up as a lot of lip service in the end, this sport will come under even more fire when the next breakdown happens. I for one don’t plan to shut up about it, and I hope my readers will remain vocal for changes, too.