by Deborah Messner

Created on: June 22, 2008   Last Updated: August 08, 2009

Just like any other athlete or sports team, the race horse industry is composed of many players; the owners, the trainers, the jockeys, the track officials, the spectators, the gamblers, the veterinarians, the farriers, and, of course, the racehorses themselves. When things are going well, these key participants spend a lot of time patting one another on the back. When things go desperately wrong, as in the case of Eight Belles, those same people use their hands to point fingers at everyone else but themselves.

What happened in the case of Eight Belles? How is it possible that an athlete at the top of her game come to such a tragic end? Who is responsible for her demise? Will there ever be any reasonable way to find the truth, and point the finger at the right person? Who is to blame for such a senseless tragedy? Who should be punished for the tragic end of such a beautiful creature?

I have bred, owned, shown and trained horses for over 20 years. While I have never owned a racing Thoroughbred, I have spent a great deal of time conditioning my stock and miniature horses for the show ring in various events. My horses, like racing Thoroughbreds, are athletes. Each of them has individual and specific needs, as well as a team of veterinarians, farriers, chiropractors and massage therapists that help to keep them feeling good and in top form. I have seen wonderful performance horses live and perform well into their twenties, and I have also seen plenty whose careers and lives have ended tragically due to injury.

I haven't really followed the racing industry since the late 1980's, when my youthful heart soared for horses like Sunday Silence and Ferdinand and Alysheba. I usually try to watch the Kentucky Derby, Belmont and Preakness every year to cheer on the current top athletes in the industry. And lately, I have certainly been saddened by the number of racehorses that seem to be meeting unfortunate ends to their careers, and lives.

There is a great deal of passion surrounding any sport that involves equines, whether it's racehorses or pleasure horses. There are many different levels of involvement for everyone, but the mainstream media tends to focus on three very vulnerable players in the race horse game: the owner, the trainer, and the jockey. The owner is responsible for funding the animal, the trainer is responsible for conditioning the animal, and the jockey is responsible for piloting the animal across the finish line, preferably before all the others.

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