Highly regarded filly "Eight Belles" ran a terrific race to finish second to an overwhelming Big Brown, then fractured both ankles running out, an injury so devastating that she was euthanized on the track. The event not only cast a pall on a great performance by two excellent horses, it was inevitably seized on by those notoriously exploitive media whores PETA, who trotted out their usual litany of exaggeration and character assassination. The death of Eight Belles, while tragic, is not, as some would claim, evidence that horse-racing is the equivalent of bear-baiting, cock-fighting or bull-fighting. Horses are sent onto a track to run, not to be killed, which should be enough of a distinction for even the most closed minded. Further, horses are fright-and-flight animals, instinctive runners who sometimes run themselves to death. It happens in the wild, and it happens on racetracks. This is not to minimize the revulsion many felt at the death of a fine, courageous animal. But it should be remembered that horses are oddly designed creatures. They have no muscles below the knee, and their hooves are essentially nails. It has been said that horses "run on their middle fingers." Thoroughbreds are especially fragile, carrying powerful bodies on spindly legs. Compare a thoroughbred to the stocky legs and huge feet of a Clydesdale, and you'll see why racehorses are so easily broken. Eight Belles did not die because she was abused, nor because the track was too hard, nor because she was a girl running against the boys, nor because her jockey whipped her in the stretch (the touches, not blows, were to keep her off the rail, not spur her to greater effort. Horses break down, sometimes publicly, and always tragically. Be it Eight Belles, or Barbaro, or Ruffian, or Landseer, it is terrible to see, for the long time fan of the sport as well as the casual one.