NastyMcT : Blog : Photography : Alaska

I just watched the Kentucky Derby. The winner Big Brown.

I’m not sure when my horse obsession began. By 1979 when The Black Stallion came out, I was hooked. I checked out every book on horses the library had. Fiction, non-fiction, new, old. It didn’t matter. Racing, jumping, equitation, western, english. I wanted to know about everything. I even recorded the audio from The Black Stallion, and would sit in my room for hours, listening to it, and visualizing the movie in my mind.

In 1981-82, I was 11/12 years old. While watching the Kentucky Derby on t.v. (who would dare miss it??) they played Run for the Roses by Dan Fogelberg. I was hooked on every lyric. No song before or since summed up the emotion of this great race. I still get misty when I hear it! Takes me back to my childhood.

My love for the race is pure excitement about the horses. Eight Belles, the filly of the race is down on the track. Which is so sad. She broke both front ankles, and they put her down. Immediately. Anyone who is into horse racing, or knows anything about horses, knows that they start these colts and fillies out TOO YOUNG. Their bones are not fully developed. They break under pressure. In my opinion it doesn’t need to happen. They need to raise the minimum racing age, to make it safer for the horses. SAD SAD day for the race. It taints the race, the sport, and again disappoints my faith in the human race. We’re regressing to the lowest common denominator. Greedy, uncaring. Short cutting whatever we can, to get the biggest bang for the buck, no matter who or what we hurt along the way.

RIP Dan Fogelberg, who succumbed to prostate cancer.

RIP Eight Belles, who succumbed to this Kentucky Derby, due to the greed of these owners.