R.I.P. Eight Belles - a photo on Flickriver

Foaled 2-23-2005
Photo taken April 19, 2007 by Victoria Keith, Fox Hill Farm

R.I.P. brave Belle...

Eight Belles ran the race of her life yesterday, in the Saturday May 03, 2008 running of the 134th Kentucky Derby; beating the oddsmakers and finishing a well-respected 2nd; chasing after Big Brown and leaving the rest of the boys behind to play catch-up behind her.

Not only did she prove she could run with the big boys, she performed admirably. What a brave and gallant filly.

Alas, she was too much horse (17HH!) for those fine, delicate legs of hers, and after crossing the finish line, she took a wrong step, and snapped both her pasterns and fetlock joints on both front legs - an unprecedented occurance in the Thoroughbred horse racing industry.

There's much I could say about the Thoroughbred racing industry per se, and so-called "Sport of Kings" - but I've said plenty elsewhere, and would rather focus on the heroic efforts and great heart of this outstanding filly.

I was rooting for her from the get go. Her strong finish and tragic end that played out on the world's stage only proved to me she was the real hero that day.

R.I.P. brave Belle. You're the real hero of this story.

~appaloosa
03/05/2008

OWNER: Rick Porter, Fox Hill Farm
TRAINER: Larry Jones, Fairhill Training Center, MD (previously Oaklawn Jockey Club, AR) www.ntra.com/stats_bios.aspx?id=7057

---------------
Now, having said all of the above, and in light of all the hoopla surrounding the Kentucky Derby and horseracing per se, I gave this article by the New Yorker a re-read and discovered it's just as relevant today as it was 9 yrs ago.. Still, nothing has changed it seems... :-(

The Tb racing industry (from sports writers to breeders, to owners, to fans, etc) IGNORE the ONE BIG FACT: why is the training and racing of these horses at a very young age (2 - 3 years) accepted and tolerated? It's like asking an 8 yr old to run the decathalon.
Ask any equine veterinarian and they’ll all tell you the same thing: the bones & skeletal structure of a horse isn’t mature until at least six years of age – SIX.

Yes, the racing industry needs reform, and they can start by raising the age at which horses can race professionally: a minimum of 5 years. Who is brave enough in this industry to make that first step?

Taken on: May 4, 2008

Tags:

cheval

horse

Kentucky Derby

Thoroughbred

134th Kentucky Derby

Fox Hill Farm

©appaloosa « less

Sets appears in: • HORSE

Groups appears in: • Kentucky • FOR THE LOVE OF HORSES... more » • Ratings - Animals « less

Stats: 9,721 views / 15 comments

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder