Eight Belles

At Salon a very informative piece on horse racing, track surfaces, horse anatomy and Eight Belles. It includes this:

Eight Belles didn’t die because she was a filly, running over her head in a race against colts. Just last year, the filly Rags to Riches won the Belmont Stakes. Eight Belles died because horses are oddly designed creatures. They have no muscles below the knee, and their hooves are essentially nails. One thoroughbred owner I know says horses “run on their middle fingers.” Thoroughbreds are especially fragile, carrying enormous bodies on legs as spindly as a Kenyan marathoner’s. Compare the stocky legs and platter-size feet of a Percheron or a Clydesdale, and you’ll see why racehorses are so easily broken.

If you follow racing at all — even three times a year — you should read this essay.