Eight Belles: The Solution

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Eight Belles: The Solution

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I have no shame, and horseracing’s my game. Like an old pair of tennis shoes , dirty, ratty and falling apart. She’s been with me for so long, yet I cant let her go. The shoes or the game.

It’s been three days since the Kentucky Derby and I’m entirely more disgusted today then I was on Saturday afternoon, in fact on Derby day I was overthrow by a twisting and knotting in my stomach. The case of the stomach boogeymen came on me just after the "big" race was complete and it was not at all related to the amount of money I had lost or the two to one ratio of Woodford Reserve to water coating my belly (I don’t drink Mint-Juleps, not even on Derby Day).

No my stomach problem were a result of the tragic accident that befell the only filly in the twenty horse field (two broken ankles, euthanasia). I’m really not a cold-hearted bastard , just a race-track regular, so to be honest it wasn’t the loss of this miraculous beast that bounced around inside my gut. It was the reaction. Horseracing over the last thirty years has been in a steady fall from grace almost parallelling sporting counter-part boxing. Twenty years ago my local sports-cast would contain the days racing results. Now the only horse-racing news on my local sports cast is tragedy. And they can’t even cover that right.

I knew Eight Belles was going to be a huge public mark against horse-racing, what else was to be expected coming so closely on the heels of the Barbaro public debacle. The poor horse (Barbaro) suffered for months and months following his on track accident in the 06 Preakness Stakes. I for one feel that both the media and public opinion unfortunately kept that magnificent beast alive suffering months after his time.

Please bare with me as I am desperate to make the final punch here really count, no one wants to spread the word so let me be the Brown Bomber of gospel.

The news in regard to Eight Belles has been correct , the explanation faulty and the media running away with it. Or should I say running away from it. There are a lot of very legitimate question being bantyed around by those who are not in the "know" when it comes to the world of thoroughbred horse-racing. Inevitability all of these conversations turn to the question of could this tragedy have been prevented? Over the past three days I have seen individual after individual botch the very simple answer to this question.

There is no 100% solution but there is prevention and frankly I’m shocked nobody’s bothered to point it out. Both Barbaro and Eight Belles suffered life threatening injuries in front of fickel audiences that have shunned horse-racing for many years. People will always flock to Churchill on the first Saturday in May if for no other reason then tradition itself but if racing intends to keep this fan coming back to the races between Derby’s it is wise to limit the amount of life threatening injuries an new fan becomes witness to . Of seven Triple Crown races in the past three years (I use Triple Crown races as an example because this is when horse-racing opens its door to the outside world, kind of like a public inspection) two have produce catastrophic injuries in front of massive crowd and television audience, not good news for maintaining the fair-weather fan.

The answer is simple and spreading across North-American race-tracks like wildfire.

Like wild fire you say?

So why has nobody mention this solution in recent Derby coverage?

Another simple one. The fire has not spread to Churchill Downs.

Fire ? What Fire?

A fire that goes by the name of polytrack, a synthetic material that has steadily been replacing standard dirt as a racing surface. Polytrack is a mixture of sand, synthetic fibres and recycled rubber coated with microcrystalline wax that has reduce the number of catastrophes by a whopping fifty percent on every track it is used on.

I don’t work for, in cooperation with or even near Churchill Downs for that matter so I don’t claim to have all the answers but I myself have been wrestling with this very issue for the past three years since Barboros breakdown and I feel that my struggle , which only came to an end this Saturday well Eight Belles lye collapsed in a heap, may be the same issue that has prevented Churchill Downs from changing there racing surface.

History, Tradition and Puritanism.

There are several arguments for tradition that begin and end with a long list of classy winners that would just no longer be comparable to today greats. There is also a historic argument that is based around numbers and records and is something I myself have hung my hat on for the last three years as an excuse for why Churchill Downs has failed to keep up with the curb. There is also the puritan view , which I must say will always cast a dark shadow over my heart but the truth is there is no convincing the puritan faction of anything. Good , bad or otherwise.

Needless to say following Barboro’s injure and right up until the fabulous filly Eight Belles fell victim to her fate I was one of these defenders of history and tradition but today I am a different man with different views. I just hope for the sake of horse-racing, horses and fans alike that the folks at Churchill Downs can grow as I have over this weekend. Its time for change and her name is Poly.

Zoltan Black