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LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Frank Daniels stood outside the paddock at Churchill Downs on Wednesday, thinking about the first race of the day while watching a rebroadcast of the Kentucky Derby on a big screen.
Daniels is a racing fan who’s been coming to Churchill Downs for 35 years. His eyes stayed fixed as Big Brown surged to victory. A split second later, filly Eight Belles followed, storming to the finish 4¾ lengths behind but well ahead of the remaining 18 colts.
“She didn’t look hurt, did she,” Daniels said. “That’s a strong-looking horse right there.”
What the replay didn’t show, or anyone could have guessed as she lunged for the wire under jockey Gabriel Saez, is that Eight Belles would be dead a quarter-mile later after breaking both of her front legs as she galloped out.
She was quickly was euthanized on the track, tempering Big Brown’s dominant win and raising questions on everything from the safety of the dirt at Churchill Downs to whether Saez abused Eight Belles with his whip in the dash to the wire.
Daniels rolls his eyes at the controversy. He’s seen a lot of racing and a handful of injured horses put down on the track. He considers what happened to Eight Belles an accident.
“It was just a freak thing,” he said. “When you have people like (veterinarian) Larry Bramlage saying they’ve never seen anything like that in their career, it just shows you how odd it really is.”
While saddened by Eight Belles’ tragic end and empathetic for trainer Larry Jones — himself a Kentuckian — many patrons said the furor over her death is overblown.
“It wasn’t the track; it wasn’t the breeding,” Brian Johnston said. “It was a fluke. The people who are talking are people who don’t watch it all year. This is a part of racing. If they want to try and make it safer, I’m all for it, but this wasn’t anybody’s fault.”
Though the Kentucky Derby Museum has received a handful of letters and a flower arrangement in support of Eight Belles, there hasn’t been the kind of overwhelming response to her death that accompanied 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro’s injury in the Preakness.
The fans at Churchill Downs on Wednesday already appeared to have moved on. There wasn’t an Eight Belles hat or pin to be seen in the modest crowd of a few thousand, though there were more than a few Big Brown hats scattered about the grandstand.
Barbaro’s remains will be buried outside Gate 1 at Churchill Downs. Plans to honor Eight Belles at the track have not been completed with owner Rick Porter, spokesman Darren Rogers said. The track is forwarding most of its well-wishes to Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del., at Jones’ request. The Derby museum is passing along cards to Fox Hill Farms in Lexington, which is owned Porter.
“She really touched a lot of people, I think, because she’s a filly,” museum spokeswoman Wendy Treinen said. “But with Barbaro, he had eight months after he was hurt where his battle was chronicled. This was just so sudden.”
While the questions will linger, the racing will go on.
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Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Doron Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3:18 left to put No. 1 Kentucky ahead to stay, and the Wildcats took a big step toward a Southeastern Conference regular-season title by beating Vanderbilt 69-63 Saturday night for their 17th straight win.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.