While I think it’s a product of greed, to be honest, having seen the barns, stalls, etc. of some of these horses’ (Fusiachi’s Pegasus included), there is absolutely no expense spared on these horses. Even a mid grade racer can bring hundreds of thousands in stud fees. It is in the owner’s best interest to keep these animals alive as long as possible, however, racing is still dangerous and with all the technological advances that have been made we just don’t seem able to protect these guys’ legs good enough. Even the synthetic dirt that some advocate hasn’t been proven to prevent injuries. The injury rate is actually pretty low overall too, 1.6 injuries for every 1,000 horses raced; BUT still I think there has to be something we can do to prevent such atrocious injuries.
I just heard this guy explain that so much pain medication is given to the horses, that when they should start feeling pain, they don’t...thus they break legs. He also explained that they are bred for speed and that their legs over the years have gotten too spindly.