by Colleen Taylor

Created on: May 22, 2008

The accident at this year's Derby was tragic and detracted from the excitement of a magnificent win by Big Brown, but I do not see any reason to blame Eight Belles' jockey for it. The gallant little filly ran a great race and might even have won if she had not had Big Brown to contend with. She was still running strongly at the finish and did not show any signs of pain or stress before she went down. Her jockey did not appear to be doing anything out of the ordinary, just letting her finish her gallop at the end of the race. If there is any blame to be laid, perhaps it was wrong to race a filly at all in what is normally considered to be a solely colts' race, but this would be unlikely to be the jockey's decision.

There has been a lot of talk about breeding, and in my opinion that is probably where the fault lies. Hybrid vigor should not be underestimated, and if horses are continuously bred from the same line, this is asking for trouble. It is common knowledge that highly bred dogs inherit weaknesses particularly in their hips and hind quarters; who is to say that brittle bones cannot be inherited from the small gene pool of thoroughbred horses? Is there not a risk in breeding from horses like Barbaro, with a history of broken bones?

Then there is the question of using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs which could have caused extra stress to her bones. If anything of this sort was used, I am sure it would have been a decision made between the owners and trainers, once again nothing to do with the jockey.

Another possibility to be considered would be a fault in the track of some sort, but surely other horses would also have been affected when running on the same course, and once again the jockey could not be blamed.

Racing horses at all at such a young age has always been controversial and anyone buying a retired race horse often has to contend with problems caused by this very practice. The veterinarians and trainers know of weaknesses that can develop in young horses, and even have a name for these - "DOD or Developmental Orthopedic Disorders". This is a subject that deserves further scrutiny.

All in all, I would say jockey Gabrielle Saez rode Eight Belles well, without putting any excess pressure on her to win once he saw the way Big Brown was performing. He deserves the sympathy of the public for such a tragic end to a well run race. Let's not forget that she ran a very good second even though she was one of very few fillies that have ever competed in the Kentucky Derby.

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