Who wins the run for the roses?

I like Big Brown, Cowboy Cal, Colonel John, and the only lady in the race, Eight Belles.
So order of these, I'm leary of putting Big Brown to win, not very experienced and coming out of the 20 hole, but it is tough not go with him. I like Colonel John as. My guess
is:
1. Big Brown
2. Colonel John
3. Eight Belles
4. Cowboy Cal

However, I would not be surprised if the lady crashes the party. What do you all think?

From watching the NBC broadcast so far I've learned nothing more than what celebrities are wearing what. Just stupid.

ESPN broadcast=better! Who's the gay dude doing the red carpet thing, the dude in the searsucker suit? Sorry I don't watch much TV.

I don't know, but he's a tool and a half. i guess I should've watched ESPN. Good lord, if I wanted that guy, I'd watch E! Network or something.

Okay, now the broadcast is MUCH better, this is what I'm used to. I guess they used that tool to do the celebrity thing for the first hour of the broadcast, they should cancel that portion next year. I'm enjoying the broadcast now.

Eight Belles euthanized after breaking both front ankles

Yep, sad news from down on the track about Eight Belles.

Congrats to Big Brown and friends.

i can't watch horse racing for that very reason. too many horses have to be put down because of injuries. too sad.

Damn, I hate seeing that. I knew when she was down it was not good. I bet a $2 exacta on Big Brown and Belle, won $141.60. Not even in the mood to go cash it.

forgive the ignorance, but why do they have to be put down? can they just put a cast on it and let it heal and let the horse live out its days on some farm

Horses have too much mass for the ankels to heel properly and they will not grow back properly and basically become infected. It is just like when we break a leg or ankle we have to keep our weight off of the bone to grow back correctly. All horse tracks need to go to a polly synthetic track. I have a hard time watching this sport anymore.

The doctor on the track said he had never seen anything like that. One bone broke the skin and the other was pretty messed up too.

If you remember, Barbaro broke an ankle at the start of the race a year or two ago. He lasted a while but eventually could not pull through, and that was only one ankle.

horses run the risk of developing fatal laminitis when they have a broken bone. so it's not the broken bone that does them in. it's laminitis.

You can't put a cast on a horse and you can't get them to keep their weight off it.

Half ton animal running on ankles the size of my wrist. I hate to see injuries happen, but surprised it doesn't happen more often.

she also comes from the Native Dancer line who passes on "soft bones" ---

jesse, if they haven't already explained it, its mainly because of the sheer size of horses. if you think about it -- an average horse is probably 1000 pounds, ie 250 pounds per foot. when a horse injures one leg, it has to try to keep most of its weight off that leg -- which means it shifts to appx 333 pounds per leg on the other 3. that is a huge increase that they just cannot bear. they usually develop laminitis in the other feet from the extra weight causing decreased blood flow and permanent damage. that is what ultimately killed barbaro.

eight belles, very, very sadly broke BOTH front legs. i've never heard of that happening in a horse race, but there is no way a horse can recover from that. very few recover successfully from a single leg fracture.

would like to see blood analysis done to see if there were drugs involved

I know that they test these horses very efficently but the past couple of years raises a red flag for me. This is a big gambling sport and I wonder what kind of drugs can not be caught when the horses are tested.

Makes you wonder what she could have done had she been sound for the whole race. Coming in second with those kind of injuries was astounding.

[This message has been edited by AnotherAg1 (edited 5/4/2008 7:58a).]

What likely caused her injury among other things was the condition of the dirt surface. Although it looked good on top the track crew spent the night before "sealing" the track, which means packing down the dirt and removing the water from the surface. It rained two inches there on Friday. They didn't want the Derby to be run on a muddy surface so that's what they did. Anyway, they ended up with a track that felt like concrete with some dirt sprinkled on top. Imagine running on that and you get injuries like what Eight Belles got. If they had had a synthetic surface like polytrack you would not have had to seal the track since rain usually drains straight through. Hopefully, all tracks will move to a synthetic surface soon given that they have a much better injury rate. However, you've got a bunch of "old school" people out there who won't do it, plus it's expensive.

so the horse finished second and then broke both legs while rounding the first turn on the cool-down? crazy. still sad thinking about it.

Tragic really. Sad day for horse racing.

It is sad that the animal went down. It's always a shame to see one injure themselves. At least match races aren't around anymore(at least not on a large scale). Shame it took what it did to stop that crap...


They where tactful enough not to show it but said something about it....is that why BB threw his rider? The anouncers talked like it may have been but the people I was with wanted to turn the channel(they were not interested....)
____________________________________________________________
Proudest member of the Fightin Texas Aggie class of 08 Beat the h*** outa tu A Whoop!!!.
= texags


[This message has been edited by Ag_of_08 (edited 5/4/2008 4:04p).]

Ag of 08, is that the most appropriate sig for this thread?

HAHAHAHAHA didn't think about that.... LOL

quote:

---

Ag of 08, is that the most appropriate sig for this thread?

---

If I had a smirk emoticon, I would use it...

i think it was why he threw the jockey. looked like he was near her when he threw the guy. horses spook so easy and that would definately do it.

quote:

---

but surprised it doesn't happen more often.

---

i wasn't aware that it happens an average of two horses per day, but that's what they said on mike and mike. and for that matter, i wasn't aware that there were that many horse races going on every day.