Beyond that, you have the manners of a cur.

@Chris: In regards to your comment: “…horses are bred for speed. Fighting dogs are bred for an ability to never give up when fighting. I hope you can see the difference.” Of course there is a difference, and I think that your comparison of dog/horse to MMA/Track & Field is spot on. Racing is far better than fighting, and is not rooted in a celebration of violence & death. But the fact remains that all of these animals are being BRED for the best interest of the owners. Horse owners/breeders surely do love their animals, but that love lies within the rubric of racing, and subjecting their bodies to potentially fatal activity. See EJ’s comment #4. And keep in mind that for every horse who ends up in the winner’s circle, many more are silently shipped to the glue factory.

@Everyone Else: Thanks for elucidating.

So which is it?

The horse needs to win in order for breeding to be worth anything…therefore the decision to race was about greed…more more acuretly stated: greed and glory. The owners of these horses aren’t risking their lives, or even injury. Hell, most of them are so rich that the loss of a million dollar horse doesn’t have an impact on their lifestyle.

There are racing fans here defending the sport, but don’t bury your head in the sand. This is two years in a row now (not even halfway through the second year) where a horse was killed because of racing. This is just the highest level, the treatment is probably much worse in the lower ranks.

Your defense appears to be the intent of racing, but the fact is you are forcing animals to do things they don’t want to do, the same as dog fighting…your motivation is irrelevent.

Also, horses are bred for speed. Fighting dogs are bred for an ability to never give up when fighting. Again, I hope you can see the difference.

There are certainly things I would change about horse racing: no whipping, no racing on pain meds and no drugs in general. But the owners have a ton of money invested in these horses, not to mention time and love. To say that greed rules horse racing is absurd–otherwise they would have done everything posible to keep the 2nd place finisher of the kentucky derby alive so they could breed for money. This is like comparing mma and track and field. And making it racial is pretty much the lowest common denominator.

So there is a line in which beating the horse is ok and that one extra whip is what turns it into a negative? You have even too many qualifiers in your argument to withstand the critique of three commenters. Come with something stronger to defend the indefensible.

Also guys… the little lady didn’t die of being whipped or going too fast. Any horse (or other prey animal for that matter) is biologically designed to run hard and fast for long distances. The problem is the AGE at which the horses are starting to race – their baby bones can’t handle the intensity, and break.