B.D.’s Last Refuge

To revisit a point I made last month:

I have this thing about animals and competition. The horses love to run, say the advocates. Do we still add weight to slow them down if they’re screwing up the odds? And what the hell is that event that always used to make ESPN, with a riot of horses falling down a riverbank? Oh, hell yeah. The horses really seemed to love that one.

This just in, from the storied Kentucky Derby:

Eight Belles crossed the finish line second in the Kentucky Derby today and then jockey Gabriel Saez heard the worst sound possible – a pop.

Saez said the filly did not take a bad step, but he heard the pop and tried to pull her up.

“I tried to get her to stop,” he said. “I tried to get her to stop, but she wouldn’t stop.”

Eight Belles, in scoring the best finish for a filly in the Derby since Winning Colors won the race in 1988, suffered condylar fractures of both front legs. She was euthanized on the track.

But, hey, other than that, it was a good run.