well said.

Your post suc ks.

nahhhh.

The part about the best horse winning and the fact
that this really is satisfying does indeed
strike the right tone.

Poor Eight Belles totally took me by surprise though.
Cant seem to factor that one out. From the horse
running suprisingly well (for me), to the accident.
To the press this morning again attacking racing.
Quandry persists.

Thanks Andy...you done good!

Well, your excellent post motivated me, Andy. Salon had an article in the sports section on the race and I took the time to post a long letter trying to address the misconceptions about racing posted by other letter writers. I didn't say it as well as you did, but I did my best. Thanks.

Andy -- Exceptional! Thank you very much for the comments and thoughts.

Eric

thanks Andy
 

I want to thank my good friend Andrew for stating so passionately the events of the derby weekend. Horse racing is a beautiful but at times a brutal sport, what took place saturday was a freak event I was about 30 yards behind 8 belles when she fell and I have never in my 30 plus years in horse racing seen anything like it . I wouldnt be surprised after the autopsy that it was found she had a heart attack and fractured her legs as a result.I love horses and I love racing it is a shame that a beautiful horse lost her life doing something she was bred born and raise to do.Its a bigger shame that people that have no understanding of our horses will use 8 belles death for they're own agenda.I hope I have stated my feelings clearly without offending anyone. Richard Migliore.

:eek: Thanks for your prospective.. and I agree.

I figured what the word meant, but I looked it up anyway. :D
BTW, nice post, BTW.

Fine, true-to-the-heart piece of writing, BTW. Thanks for taking the time. I'll echo the thought of Phil and others that it belongs on the Times' OpEd page, too.

--Dunbar

And thanks to Richard Migliore for stopping in and adding some more longterm perspective about how freakish this particular tragedy was.

this is what i've been saying, thanks for adding your first hand perspective.

good post, and a good thread since no one has taken it off course. but i don't know that frustration is a strong enough word to describe what i felt at the end of the race, and still feel now. this sport has a lot of potential, and a lot of people involved in it who are dragging it down, while just enough others are trying to keep it upright. so, we barely stay afloat while paddling in circles.
ratings were ok on tv, huge crowd attended (don't think it can ever be larger than the record, since infield audience has been capped), no reason why handle had to drop. but we know why it did.

Cursory newspaper reports showing huge crowds at offtrack betting locations, as well.

Welcome to the forum!

Nice piece Andy...very well said.

It is a shame the affect the media has on the general public, that happen to be non-racing fans. We keep ESPN on at work throughout the day, and the couple times on Sportscenter, when they showed J. Edwards reporting piece on Eight Belles, the senseless drivel that people were spewing during and after her piece was mindboggling to me. To overhear some of these people, who are basically just accepting as fact, everything that the likes of PETA and other non-horse related media spoon feed them, was infuriating. Fortunately for them, and for me as well, that I was in my work environment, so biting my tounge was clearly the proper decision. It took a great deal of restraint to just look at them, shake my head and walk away.

Our sport has its shares of tragedies, every day, but it's still the greatest thing going.

yeah, but fans of the game understand it, and still get upset by it-i did for sure. so how else would someone who really knows nothing about the sport react?

Wow!! Welcome to the forum Richard. Thank you for the heartfelt post as well as giving us an opinion from someone who was actually close to the situation. Best of luck to you and stay safe!

Bet ya wanted to pick up a 9 Iron and beat the Sh!t outta them :p

I wanted to put my foot in their ass sideways...

I think he's been 'lurking' for a while...

the general TV media really picked up on the peta charges. that was the juicy story that the news outlets all chose to run with "Peta wants jockey suspended!". one thing about Peta, they know how to whip up a frenzy and garner attention. how many thousands of people do you suppose heard that and just assumed that the jockey did something wrong?

Deb, Im referring more to the moronic statements made by these people declaring the sport useless, moronic and brutal. Like Mig said, and all of us understand that here, there is unfortunately a brutal side to this beautiful game that we all love. It's the people that have no idea what horse racing entails and just accept at face value what is spewed forth from TV, radio and other mass media outlets. I realize the difficulty involved in trying to convince these same people to see the same things we see, and for the most part, that will never be accomplished. Too many negative "stigmas" associated with the sport of horse racing for Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public to fully appreciate the same things you, I, and everyone else around here do.