Should the girl horses be banned from competing against the boys now?

Question

re: 8 bells broken ankles/put down yesterday in the kentucky derby

Answer 1

No!  Girls run safely against the boys everyday and win!  It's extremely common in countries other than the US.  In the US, fillies often run safely against the boys too... Rags to Riches won the Belmont last year!  People here think that there's a correlation between fillies getting hurt and fillies running against boys, but that's just not true.  People think there's a correlation because there's more people paying attention to racing when we do have a battle of the sexes situation.  Those races attract a lot of attention, so when people see the filly get hurt, there's a big outcry like there is now.  You could argue that fillies try harder against the boys, so they break their legs.  You could argue that fillies have a more fine bone structure which causes them to break their legs more.  But there's just not proof of those things.  Statistically, career ending and fatal injuries happen to colts and fillies alike in all races whether they're facing their own s*x or not.

Answer 2

The fact that she was a filly had nothing to do with why she died. She simply tripped and broke her ankles, a freak accident, gender has nothing to do with it. There is absolutely no reason to ban fillies from competing with colts. Their gender makes no difference.

Any one of those colts could have tripped and the same thing would have happened. There is no way they will ban fillies from racing.

Answer 3

no because when she had her injury i dont think the boys caused it

Answer 4

no, boys v. girls had nothing to do with what happened. Breeding horses to run faster had more to do with what happened.

Answer 5

No!

Eight Belles beat 18 out of the 19 colts she raced against.

Answer 6

It has nothing to do with boys and girls. It is very sad what happened, but it's part of the sport.

Answer 7

It has nothing to do with the gender of the horse.  Eight Belles is not the first horse, male or female, to break down during a race.

Answer 8

Not because of this.  Her injury had nothing to do with the fact that she was running with boys.  It was that she was running too fast, too young, on legs that were too thin to support her weight.

Answer 9

Girl horses are fillies and the problem is the people that are breeding them are breeding them with males that are to small and continue breeding them again with males that are to small so we have another with ankles like the one at the derby. But I can not say that I don't agree yesterday at the Derby they should have said absolutely not to her running because she was running against a field of horses way to big for her!

Answer 10

No, the girls have run against the boys many times without incident.  Rags To Riches beat all the boys in last years Belmont (without injury) but nobody mentions that the past couple days.