Newsday: Eight Belles' death leads some to seek changes
"It was a sad scene, but what can I say? ... It's a part of the sport," said Robinson, 57, of Queens Village, as he sat watching the races in Belmont Park yesterday. He has been betting on horses for more than 40 years.
To him, the filly's catastrophic injury, which led to her being euthanized on the track, was the result of a strategic blunder by her handlers and not an inherent flaw in the sport.
"I don't think they should've started the filly with 19 colts in the race," Robinson said. "It takes a lot out of the fillies to run with the boys."
Eight Belles' fatal fractures - coming after a second-place finish to Big Brown in a field crowded with male horses, who are often bigger and faster than fillies - cast a pall through the crowd of more than 157,000 at Churchill Downs and millions more who watched on television screens. It also prompted some to call for more research and reform to prevent these injuries.
"When something like this happens, it's terrible for the image of the industry," said Dr. Dean Richardson, chief of surgery at University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa. Richardson oversaw three major surgical procedures for Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby winner who was euthanized months after fracturing his hind right leg in the 2006 Preakness.
"It should provide more impetus for the industry to find out how to prevent these types of injury. But it's never going to be perfect. These are horses that are working at their physiological limit," he said.
While Eight Belles' injuries were exceptional in their timing and severity, several experts said, fatal injuries in racehorses are not that rare. No nationwide statistics are available on thoroughbred breakdowns, but a 1992 Kentucky survey found 1.4 fatalities occurred for every 1,000 starts.
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