Eight Belles deserves better

Louisville, Ky.

Where are the animal rights activists when you need them?

Eight Belles was entered in the 134th Kentucky Derby on Wednesday. Success would demand that she run 10 furlongs faster than 19 males. There is the most remote possibility that she will succeed, this covered by one of life’s immutable truths: Anything can happen in a horse race.

What is far more likely is that Eight Belles will be permanently scarred by the experience.

Three fillies have won the Derby, in 1915, Genuine Risk, Genuine Risk, in 1981, and Winning Colors, whose victory will mark its 20th anniversary on Saturday.

Regret, though she was generally unsound, was an extremely fast filly whose regularly defeated males. But Genuine Risk and Winning Colors were nothing like Eight Belles. Both were big, rugged fillies who competed against males on even physical terms. Winning Colors defeated males in the Santa Anita Derby before the Derby. Genuine Risk prepped for the Derby in the Wood Memorial, in which she finished third.

Eight Belles has nothing in common with those fillies.

She is, however, a beautifully conformed filly, light-framed and feminine. Her misfortune is not trainer Larry Jones, who skirts the issue uncomfortably. A trainer who criticizes the decisions made by an owner will not be training for long. Though he came here a year ago with Hard Spun, who was runner-up to Street Sense, Jones shows no symptoms of Derby fever and he seems uncomfortable discussing Eight Belles’ chances in the Derby. Owner Rick Porter, however, is apparently beset by Derby fever.

Unlike the three fillies who have won the Derby, Eight Belles has never faced males nor has she attempted a race beyond 1 1/16. She has won her last four races, one in New Orleans, three in Arkansas but none in Grade I company. She would be formidable in the Oaks on Friday, in which Jones has Proud Spell for more reasonable, less vain connections who are probably concerned with the welfare and well being of their prized filly.

There is no reason beyond vanity to run Eight Belles in the Derby, either. As a breeding prospect, her value may be increased but a broodmare can produce only one foal a year. Breeders found it almost impossible for Genuine Risk to conceive and Winning Colors has had no impact as a broodmare.

The only thing that might have saved Eight Belles from the cruelty she is about to endure was a poor post position but the draw put her connections sixth in order of selection, assuring a favorable position in the barrier a day after she drew the outside post in a field of 12 entered in the Oaks. She will face the firing squad from post five.

Porter has enjoyed great success, having owned the very good filly, Jostle, a Grade I winner in 2000, Round Pond, winner of the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Distaff and Hard Spun, who he sold for an enormous amount of money last year. Porter should know better. He should also show a bit of compassion for a very nice, still developing filly who, if he sends her into the teeth of a buzzsaw on Saturday, may very well leave he career in the shadows of the twin spires. If so, it will be a sad, sad day. –PM

The Derby takes shape

Although an outside post is rarely a obstacle in the Kentucky Derby, it does a great deal to determine the dynamic and the luck of the draw in the two-tiered system used to decide position in the barrier put the principal speed horses and the favorite in tough spots, in the case of Big Brown, it was voluntary.

The draw was marked by an unprecedented display of arrogance by the connections of Big Brown, who with several positions still open, chose post 20. Only one Derby winner has overcome the outside post in a field of 20 – Clyde Van Dusen, in 1929. His connections did not choose that post, however. Nevertheless, Big Brown was installed at the 3-1 morning-line favorite.

Since Clyde Van Dusen, 10 horses breaking from the outside post in Derby fields of 20 or more have, with the exception of Caveat, who finished third in 1983, have to crack the top three.

Three speed horses –Cowboy Cal, Recapturetheglory and Gayego – are immediately inside Big Brown in the barrier and Bob Black Jack will depart from post 13, all but assuring a wild run to the first turn and an extremely fast pace. Rick Dutrow and Big Brown’s connections may have left their Derby chances in downtown Louisville on Wednesday.

Two horses will go into the Derby with blinkers on, two others with blinkers off. Surprisingly, one of those with blinkers on, Bob Black Jack, the world-record holder for six furlongs, already has high early speed, a curious decision by an obscure trainer. Court Vision, who breaks from the four post, also goes with blinkers. Removing the hood: Anak Nakal and Z Humor.--PM