Thanks Andy, very well said.
My girlfriend asked me tonight what I thought about all this national media noise about Eight Belles and how cruel racing is and blah blah. Purposely, I have been trying to avoid it because I know it's just another uninformed, lazy, headline grabbing story after another, from people who don't know the game or the animals.
Hell, I don't claim to know the game that well. I love the animals and I like my gambling now and then. That's why I am here. To me, I'd like to see one of these reporters/columinsts out there on a sweltering August Wednesday in Minnesota at Cantebury or a cold November Monday at Suffolk Downs in $5,000 NWX2 claiming event. I'd like to see them when some 6 yr old gelding breaks down in a race like that at a track like those. Not to diminsh Eight Belles' life or her career, but she is no different than that 6 yr old gelding. If they were there to report the demise of that gelding, than hey, maybe they had some business sensationalizing Eight Belles passing.
But of course, that will never be the case. Don't get me started on the whole advance wager bullsh**t.
