People have been fans of race horses since Man O' War and Seabiscuit. Good grief, they used to send Seabiscuit beer
I don't see anything wrong with it at all.
Good grief, people get sappy and somewhat ridiculous about the Decorah eagles nest came, and kitties on the internet. Yes, some people anthropomorphize. If "the realities" of animal husbandry intrudes, so much the better for them to become educated and learn the realities around race horses. The open medical details published about Barbaro, I'm sure, kept alot of heat off the racing industry by the ignorant and PETA types. The average person learned how sophisticated and caring treatment of the race horse can be. I want "the average person" who is only superficially aware of horse racing to be on the industry's side, and not listening to PETA tell them what racing is.
So if they have a Facebook page with a famous horse snarfing the bubbles in it's bath and looking disgustingly cute, I don't care.