Bob Neumeier

Already reeling from a shrinking fan base, a lack of unified national leadership, and stiff competition from state lotteries, casinos, and the white-hot poker rage, the sport of thoroughbred racing took another shot to the solar plexus on Saturday — the devastating injury to Barbaro.

To the millions watching on television and the tens of thousands on-site at Pimlico Race Course, the visceral reaction was one of horror, sadness, despair, and anger. It is a gruesome sight to watch a helpless thoroughbred thrash about with a serious leg injury. As former Heisman Trophy winner Joe Bellino told me the day after the Preakness, “I’ve never felt that way about any human athletic injury, I’ll tell you that.”

For this reporter standing a mere 50 feet from the ambulance and the protective screen, it was an eerie trip back in a time machine. I heard those same shrieks and cries of disbelief at Belmont Park in 1990 when Go For Wand broke down after dueling with Bayakoa in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. I saw the same tears shed by men, women, and children both on and off the track.

When majestic and powerful thoroughbred horses are struck down, we feel as if someone has slugged us in the gut with a baseball bat. It’s an empty, nauseating feeling and one that prompts an immediate series of questions.

Did Barbaro get hurt breaking through the starting gate? Are the tracks safe? Is the Triple Crown schedule too taxing? Are we breeding horse too fragile to handle the rigors of racing? Is the sport intrinsically cruel to animals?

While worthy of both thought and debate, the answers to these questions are not so cut-and-dried.

To the neophytes of the sport, it seems counter-intuitive to listen to those of us who love racing the most, who look at Barbaro's injury as an unfortunate accident, as part of the game. Horses are athletes, subject to the same physical demands as men and women who play football, basketball, or hockey. This rational and reasoned view of the Barbaro incident is likely taken as cold and callous by the vast majority of viewers and fans that watch the three Triple Crown races and nothing more.

That view leaves them empty and unsatisfied.

Therein lays the rub for the racing industry. While some turn on their TV hoping for the next NASCAR crash, nobody flicks on the tube for the next horse race for fear of experiencing a repeat of what they saw in the Preakness. If you have burned your hand touching the kitchen stove, you probably have been eating take-out since.

That Barbaro is even still alive is due to an extraordinary effort by the veterinarians on site at Pimlico that day and the skill of the surgeons and nurses at the New Bolton Center. Much like NFL stadiums that are equipped with x-ray machines and state-of-the-art medical facilities, race tracks today are prepared for catastrophic events like the Barbaro injury.

And jockey Edgar Prado richly deserves props for saving the horse from further damage.

To many people however, these truths smack of empty words or glass half-full rationalizations.

Where does racing go from here?

Sadly, it must take the hit and move on. Sure, people can debate the merits of pushing back the Preakness a week and stretching out the rigorous Triple Crown campaign, but to them I ask, will this truly safeguard the sport from further injuries? Is it fair to the legacy of Seattle Slew, Affirmed, and Secretariat to change the rules in midstream?

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Yes, the sport should take an exhaustive look at the merits of the synthetic Polyturf surface to see if that truly reduces the chances of injury.

But please let us not overreact to the raw emotions of the moment. Those of us that love the game are truly sickened by what we saw at Pimlicio. But we are also very much aware that like horse racing, human life is just as fragile, capable of changing or ending in the snap of your fingers.

Dan Hendricks, trainer of Brother Derek, can speak to that point.

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