I'm not so sure. I could be wrong, but I thought that the lack of coverage was to avoid the constant repetition and focus on sensitive footage to avoid the kind of criticism that came after things like the constant repetition of the Joe Theisman injury. The absurd repetition of his leg break was disgusting--any similar focus on poor Eight Belles would have been even worse.

As I said, I might be wrong and it certainly seemed weird to almost completely ignore the tragedy.
 

I would like to emphasize the need to keep winning. Nobody paid much attention when Eight Belles was euthanized because she hadn't won. But if Big Brown loses his next race do you think it would get any more mention if he has to be euthanized?
The media only cares about winners for as long as they keep winning and making good headlines. Past that, all they are good for is glue (and I don't just mean the horses).
 

I have been a follower of the Sport of Kings for many years. Eight Belles was not the first horse to break down in a race, or after a race. Nor was she the first to be euthanized on the track.
As someone who is knowledgeable about horse racing practices, I can say that the lack of coverage is typical and expected. They never replay the moment of injury, and they never show the final moments as the horse is euthanized.
Those involved with the thorobreds would not want to see that sort of trajedy replayed over and over again to satisfy the curiosity of the spectators. It would be an obscene way to treat a magnificent animal who raced his or her heart out.
I've seen horses win races on broken bones. I've seen horses suffer catastrophic injuries while racing. The racing industry mourns the passing of each horse that doesn't survive, and honors them in their own way.
Many races that are named after horses are named for horses that died racing, such as the Go for Wand Stakes, the Risen Star, the Ruffian, and so on.
They memorialize the fallen great for all time by naming races after them. Within the next five years there will probably be an Eight Belles Stakes, and there is already a race named for Barbaro.
And if it's information you seek about what happened, you won't find it on NBC, nor should you. Check places like the NTRA website, the Blood Horse website, and the Daily Racing Form website. That is where events like this are discussed and analyzed, and where fans of the sport can learn what happened.
As for the feminist issue... only three fillies have ever won the Kentucky Derby because in thorobreds, the sexes aren't equal, and most fillies cannot compete against the larger, stronger, more physically powerful colts. That Eight Belles placed in that race, beating 18 of the best colts in the country to do so, is a tribute to her phenomenal talent and in no way makes a statement about the efforts of women in general.
People aren't racehorses, after all.
 

Winning no matter what the cost, that and the almighty dollar do seem to be the focus of our society. If you look deeper into the sport of horse racing, you will see just how far that obsession drives the industry. And yes, it is an industry!

I have heard all sorts of theories about why this tragedy occured. Many are ridiculous but there are others that hold some weight.

What it boils down to is that horse racing is an industry that encourages riding horses when they are way too young to hold up to the stress. They are started as yearlings and it has been documented that horses skeletal systems are not fully mature until age 5. Their legs are usually finished at around 3.5 years of age. Then there is the issue of bloodlines. There are only 3 sire lines left in thoroughbreds. The studbooks are closed so inbreeding is pretty much the norm and breeders are breeding for freakish speed without regard to bone, conformation, etc. Horses with Native Dancer bloodlines have been shown to have a problem with breaking down frequently - but they are fast! You combine brittle bones and immature skeletons with hard track surfaces and you have a recipe for disaster. Add pain killing drugs into the mix and you are guaranteed a tragedy at some point. All of this is driven by egos and money at the expense of a disposable commodity, the thoroughbred racehorse.

The racing industry needs to change it's ways if it wants to survive. I highly doubt that will happen but one can always hope!
 

I just found this little nugget. Check out the Derby winner's feet and tell me there is not something wrong! He will go on to breed and pass on this flaw to his offspring.

There are horses that can go on 100 mile endurance rides barefoot and their feet hold up just fine.

This illustrates just how far people will go to win.

http://tinyurl.com/64akq6
 

Therefore our children shall do no exercise until they are twenty five years of age and their skeletons have finished fusing. Training, and yes, racing, during the physical development of the racehorse creates a stronger, hardier animal than one whose training begins after the bones have fused. Use of bone and muscle contribute to the development of the same. Or as we say in nursing to our patients who don't want to walk: "Use it or lose it."

In Man O War's day, it was not uncommon to run a horse in a major race, and then turn around and run the same horse only a few days later. Modern equine athletes are pampered in comparison.

As for bloodlines, the entire breed is founded on three arabian stallions crossed into english hunter mares. 80% of all thorobreds alive today are descended from Eclipse. So, yes, they are inbred. So is a persian cat. So is a dalmation. The only breed of horse that isn't inbred are mustangs, and even that is debatable.

Native Dancer was a fantastic sire by the only measure the industry uses: his offspring won races. Lots of races. And then when they retired to the breeding sheds, they passed their abilities on. Native Dancer became a sire of sires. So did Mr. Prospector, so did Storm Cat. Secretariat became known as a broodmare sire, due to the X-linked large heart gene that we suspect Big Brown inherited through the distaff side of the Native Dancer line.

Fragile? Right. Every mother who's ever had a frail, sickly child should therefore never breed again, despite that her other children are all robustly healthy. Native Dancer has thousands of horses descended from him. How many, in total, have this fragility? The number I've heard is somewhere less than 3 percent.

As for the endurance horses who go a hundred miles, the fastest they're ever asked to go is a canter. A thorobred racehorse can run around forty miles an hour. The average thorobred weighs about a thousand pounds. So, you have a thousand pound animal running at forty miles an hour on four slender stilts.

Accidents happen even in endurance rides. They're just not televised. Actually, I once helped a neighbor with her horse until the vet arrived to put the animal down because while trotting in the pasture, the horse stepped in a gopher hole and broke his leg. My neighbor couldn't afford the thousands of dollars it would have cost to try and save him. Again, a tragedy, but not televised.

Thorobred racing is televised, and all betting aside, the sport is one of rare beauty and magnificence. thorobreds run because they love it. You can't force them to race, after all.

All we can do is remember the ones who fell, and keep an eye on the safety improvements that the racing industry is continually coming up with.