EDITOR'S NOTE
If Tom Brady Died after Super Bowl XLII, would the crowd still cheer?
by Susan Dyer Reynolds

Like most humans with a heart, I watched with a mix of sadness, shock and anger as the 3-year-old dark gray filly Eight Belles was destroyed on the track after this year’s Kentucky Derby. The sadness came because, first and foremost, I am an animal lover and this was a senseless death. The shock and subsequent anger were because the crowd, from socialites sipping mint juleps to the owners of winner Big Brown, continued to cheer, even as veterinarians administered the lethal dose to the filly phenom who finished second and then collapsed with two broken ankles. Bettors collected their winnings and NBC reveled right along with them, with shots of the Winner’s Circle, the smiling fans, and Big Brown’s proud owners, jockey and trainer. One shot from above barely captured, in the hazy background of the hullabaloo, the frightened, mortally wounded Eight Belles, lying on her side, her head held by track personnel.

I could fill this entire publication with everything that is wrong with the so-called “sport” of horseracing (and dog racing, for that matter), from the breeding of animals for speed rather than durability to the use of drugs to the far-too-frequent tragedies as a result of it all. It was just two years ago that Triple Crown hopeful Barbaro shattered his leg at the Preakness Stakes and was euthanized several months later due to “complications” from surgery. But the dirtiest secret of the “sport of kings” happens in the darkest shadows of these high profile cases: Callus owners dispose of horses that aren’t fast enough or are injured before they have a chance to prove themselves by sending them to the slaughterhouse.
What really stuck with me in the aftermath of Eight Belles’s tragic demise were those cheering fans, and the iciness of the people who supposedly cared for her.

When they interviewed her jockey about her death before the Preakness, he said, through crocodile tears, that he “couldn’t talk about it.” Moments later, he could be seen in a background locker room shot, laughing with other jockeys. The filly’s owners acted upset on camera, but it was unclear whether they were sad about losing a beautiful animal or a big investment. I have a feeling it was the latter. And I wanted to jump through the television and smack her trainer every time he said something trite to the press like, “She died doing what she loved,” or “She was a great athlete who went out like a champion.”
How does he know that Eight Belles was “doing what she loved”? I am fairly certain she would rather have been running in a huge pasture without a jockey on her back and a whip at her shoulder.

There are huge differences between human athletes and animal ones, the most obvious being that human athletes have a choice. Barry Bonds had a choice about whether to do steroids; Michael Jordan had a choice to retire when his body, and his game, grew weary; and David Beckham has a choice to take the field before each and every match.
Yes, there are similarities – ball players are “owned,” and traded to other towns like playing cards. They often leave their sport with broken bodies that never heal and make them old before their time. Once they begin to struggle or they retire, they are often forgotten by fair-weather fans and everyone they once associated with on a daily basis. They are not, however, sent to slaughter because they can’t run fast enough.

I couldn’t help but wonder how other professional athletes would be treated if they died after a game. What if, for example, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady dropped dead after Super Bowl XLII? Would the camera pan to the Winner’s Circle where Eli Manning held up his MVP trophy as his teammates slapped his behind in congratulations? Would they interview New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin about the monumental win while Patriots personnel held Brady’s head on the field in a blurry background shot? If Tom Brady died after Super Bowl XLII, would the crowd still cheer?


If you would like to adopt a retired racehorse or donate to the organizations that save them and other abandoned and abused horses from slaughter, please visit the following Web sites:

• www.savethehorses.org
• www.fund4horses.org
• www.luvshackranchrescue.com
• www.exracers.com (includes a list of thoroughbred rescue groups)

E-mail: susan@northsidesf.com