Do you think that Eight Bells could have won the Derby had she not broken her ankles?

Question

I personally think that she could. I mean, if she ran that far and came in second with cracking if not already broken ankles, I think she could have easily given more than she gave. That would've been awesome if a filly won the Derby! What do you think?

Answer 1

Watch Kentucky Derby at http://xvids-db.com/watch.php?x=Kentucky...

Quality is well :)

Answer 2

She did not run two races in two days. You must be intentionally spreading this misinformation to incite anger at the "evil" horsre owners and trainers.

Answer 3

If she hadn't raced the day before, the match might have been closer. I told my husband as soon as they said she'd won the day before that she had no business racing in the Derby. These are young horses and that was just asking too much of this big hearted girl, who looked to be giving her all. But she was not as fast and stout as Big Brown. If any horse can win the Triple, it's this one. He's fit, not over raced and smart. He was raced smart. If his owner/trainer keep their cool and train him properly for the next two races, he has no competition and stands a very good chance of winning both the same way he won this one. of course, the weather may not be conducive and the fields may change and he could have an injury himself. He's young and hasn't raced much himself.

She wanted to do more, go farther, but her bone structure just didn't have it. Unfortunately, this is a breed that will run its legs off or heart out....and people have exploited this since the beginning of time. And as long as money is involved, nothing will change.

Answer 4

Wow, that would have been awesome! Now she's dead, isn't THAT Cool! Sorry for the sarcasm, but for the love of horses, what the @##%! Here's an idea, wouldn't it be awesome if we didn't have stupid contests where horses that are to young are run to death for money! Now THAT would be AWESOME!

Answer 5

No.  The fractures apparently took place after the race was over. The horse was galloping at the finish, and could not have done so on broken ankles.

Answer 6

...maybe, maybe not...  what p**s's me off is "they" instantly euthanized the Horse... what shame...  "they" could have at least tried to comfort the beast and try'd to help the animal, not just killing it... what a bunch of c**p that was...

Answer 7

this is part of horse racing...bred to run...she got beat today by the best...big brown proved he is the real deal...i picked pyro! sad story tho about the eight bell horse...i did play her in my trifecta with pyro

Answer 8

I don't think she was injured until after she crossed the finish line.  Gabriel would have pulled her up before hand.  He said he heard something and she started galloping funny after the line, then tried to pull her up, but she went down.  She ran a great race and I don't think she could have done it if she was in pain.  It's nice to see the fillies vindicated this year... everyone was saying that Eight Belles and Proud Spell didn't belong in the Derby, but I think the girls are better than the boys this year.

Answer 9

No, Big Brown would have still won because she broke them after she crossed the finish line heading around the first turn again.

Answer 10

Yeah, thats what i think. If she was in better shape and a bit older I think she would win. She was an amazing horse. I wish i had seen what happened so I knew more. I changed my name from Jennifer Jeter to Eight Belles until 1:05 tomorrow to honor her (its the least I could do along with signing the petition on chai-online.com)

Stop horse racing in Isreal:

http://chai-online.com/en/campaigns/raci...

♥ I added you. Good luck stoping horse racing. I'm with you!

♥ My real name on here is Jennifer Jeter but until 1:05 tomorrow I am "Eight Belles" in honor of the beautiful horse that died yesterday ♥

Answer 11

Here is my theory.  I think she would not have won the Derby had she not broken her ankles because she ran the best race she could have run.  I speculate that the trainer blocked her ankles (gave her pain relievers so that she could not feel them) so that she would run her best race.  Doing that has a 10 to 20% chance of something bad happening (which it did), the the owner got the purse of $600,000 and the insurance on the horse.  

Ken

Answer 12

She broke her ankles after the race was over. Her jockey was trying to slow her down, but she was too excited and he couldn't pull her back. That's when her ankles buckled.

R.I.P.    Eight Belles

Answer 13

She was soundly beaten by Big Brown and she didn't sustain the fractures until after the race. She did not run in the Derby with fractures, that happened as she was pulling up, one snapped and as she threw all her weight onto the other leg to save herself, that snapped too.

Answer 14

It's a possibility, but unfortunately, one we will never know.  Big Brown is a very talented colt, and winning by five lengths is no small accomplishment.  I would have loved to see him and Eight Belles race against each other in the Preakness and Belmont as well, as they obviously were the top horses in the field.

However, do keep in mind that Big Brown was in the 20th post position, all the way to the outside, and still won the race by a large margin.  That takes an incredibly talented horse, so I do have my doubts that Eight Belles would have been able to beat him, even if her legs had been sound.

P'rushim:  It's not cruel at all.  Horses need all four legs in order to survive.  There is no way that Eight Belles would have been able to recover from two broken legs, and it would be much more cruel and painful for her in the long run had they tried to save her.  People really need to understand that good racehorses are incredibly valuable, and most owners would rather go through the expense of trying to save their horse and using it for breeding (or for pleasure riding/trail riding, if they're lucky), instead of simply putting it to sleep.  What they did was the kind and humane thing to do, because she would have died anyway.  There is no surgery that can save a horse that has broken two legs.