PETA wants Eight Belles jockey suspended after filly's death

Breitbart ^ | May 4, 2008 | AP

[Hot Tabasco]

blablablablablablablab

I'm not going to try and translate but you pretty much summed up where you're coming from.........it's best that you just be ignored.

[RDTF]

then why didn’t you?

[CougarGA7]

[PAR35]

Nobody would deliberately kill a Derby horse that finished in the money. No way.

I take it that you've never heard of Alydar, who happened to finish second in the Derby before succumbing to a fatal case of insurance? Or were you being sarcastic?

[Admin Moderator]

Knock off the personal stuff.

[NittanyLion]

what forum did you post at before July of 07? Did they kick you out? Have some respect here newbie.

And what forum did you post at before 2005, noob? Just because your statement was thrown back in your face by someone more knowledgeable is no reason to get all upset.

[AnAmericanMother]

Aside from the fact that Lloyd's paid the claim and no fraud wrt the death was ever proved . . . . the adjuster and the trainer always maintained he broke his leg kicking in his stall. It was the largest payout in equine insurance history (may still be), so it will always attract attention. And of course Alydar was 15, not 3 and in the middle of a racing season.

But even if we assume his death was intentional, it was in the context of a much larger asset-bleeding scheme involving Calumet Farms. The son in law had inherited the farm and proceeded to leverage everything to the hilt (including Alydar) and then default. But he was sent to prison for bank fraud, not for insurance fraud.

It would have been tough for him to get to the horse without anybody noticing, he was only interested in the money, not the horses.

So I don't think that tells us anything about killing a Derby horse in the middle of the racing season, even if it was a deliberate killing.

The real insurance fraud money is in show horses. They haven't got much syndication value, and their careers are short and uncertain.

[fortheDeclaration]

Thoroughbred horses exist only to race and to be used in the far more dangerous jumping competitions. They were brought into existence to perform these functions and would rapidly become extinct without them. I live in horse-breeding country and know what happens to thoroughbreds which don't perform -- not very pretty.

And that is the point, if the horses don't perform, they are treated cruelly.

This is simply about money, not any love for the horses.

And I say that as a general statement, I am sure some horse racers do love horses.

What is phony about the Triple Crown? I can assure you that these races exist, and winning them brings large amounts of money to a great many people.

It does exist, but it is really a goal to make all three races important.

If it didn't exist, it would make the individual races pretty irrelevant.

If 'Big Brown' (I believe that is the horse's name which won), loses the second leg, the third race becomes meaningless.

That is why it is ridiculous to think that a professional jockey would deliberately injure a horse which had just finished in the money in the Kentucky Derby. That horse was worth a lot more than the jockey and any jockey that caused an injury to such a horse would never be employed again.

I would think so also, I doubt it was a deliberate act.