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I, too, immediately thought of beautiful brave Ruffian

I cannot think about Ruffian or re-read her story without crying my eyes out. It was the first time I ever got physically ill over an event. There was a time when I loved thoroughbred racing because of the horses. Really loved it. But over time, and I guess as the rose-colored glasses of my youth gave way to adult disillusion, I came to know the hard, brutal side of it.

The cold hard reality is that horses are just commodities to most people in the business. They aren't even called he or she, but it. They are a commodity. Nothing more, nothing less. When their racing days are over, the best runners get a chance at life on a breeding farm. Some are lucky enough to be bought for use in other sports, or for pleasure riding. A few are rescued by caring people and allowed to live out their lives in peace. Most, however, go to be slaughtered for dog food and other products. The same thing eventually happens even to top stallions and mares if they don't produce at stud.

Want proof? Exceller was a top Champion who did not produce, was sold for stud in Sweden and wound up being sent to the slaughterhouse. Go here for more information.

The connections of Barbaro may or may not love him, but they are trying to save him for stud because of the millions of dollars involved. But what if he doesn't become a top stallion? What happens to him then, when the TV lights are long gone? Although it was investigated but never proved, it is widely believed that the great, famous racehorse and stallion, Alydar, was killed by his owners to get the insurance money in an effort to save Claiborne Farm. (These things are hard to prove. How do you prove that, as in Alydar's case, the horse broke his hind leg kicking his stall vs. someone taking a sledge hammer to it?)

Yesterday, in the winners circle on national TV, Frank Stronach unwittingly gave the game away when he rather coldly said, "That's horse racing." Like...shrug. (Stronach, a Canadian and member of Canada's Liberal Party, is one of the biggest powers in thorougbred racing these days. Go here to read a short bio.)

Well, yes, it is horse racing. But the problem I have is that almost everyone in the industry stops there. They rarely go the next step and ask, "How can we improve it?"

Why don't people like Stronach and the Arabs who won yesterday's Preakness (with a Kentucky-bred horse they bought) use their wealth and modern technology to fund research into new safety methods? Maybe track surfaces could be improved to better absorb the shock of hoof strikes. Maybe research would develop new leg wraps that would help support and protect horses' legs, kind of the way pads and helmets protect football players, and the HANS device protects racecar drivers by preventing severe whiplash and neck shear injuries. Maybe organized methods could be developed to provide good post-career homes for horses. Maybe the working conditions of grooms, hot-walkers and the other "little" people who are the backbone of the sport could be improved.

It's not just the safety of horses that's at stake, but the safety of jockeys and exercise riders. And for the money men and women who run the sport, think of the PR value.

Sigh. It's like talking to a wall in that sport.