Is it worth it?

I have this love hate relationship with the horse racing industry.  I can't deny that every year I religiously watch the Kentucky Derby, that I even visited Churchill Downs once in my teenage years during a off-track racing day, which was kinda cool because there was nobody there and you could just walk around.  I got to see the track that day by pulling a chained door open a crack and peering through.

It's an odd thing.

At one time I wanted to do one of the equine programs in Louisville.  I never wanted to be a trainer and I'm way too big to be a jockey... I just wanted to be a groom.  Horses were my life.  I would've given anything just to live in a big barn and take care of horses for the rest of my life. I don't like that horses are raced so young.  I don't like that horses are bred so much for speed and not so much for surviving.

Some years ago M and I were flipping channels and caught a race.  There was a horse named Hello.  I remember telling M that I had a bad feeling about that horse, its legs were too spindly.  I went so far as to say it wouldn't finish the race.

It broke its leg shortly after the start and was euthanized on the track.

Even I was a little shocked.

Today, as I was watching the post parade and trying to guess which horse would win (and totally falling in love with Big Brown and his "old" stockier build) I noticed Eight Belles and commented to Jim that I thought she was too fine, too narrow and too willowy for the race.  I said: she'll push too hard and she doesn't have the legs for it.

So as I was watching the race I was thrilled to see Eight Belles surge near the end to place second.  I was talking to M and started to say something along the lines of "hey maybe I was wrong about that filly" when Kent Desormeaux fell off of Big Brown.  There was a bit of a to-do over that and then the camera panned around and showed a horse laying on the track.

It was Eight Belles.

Just after the finish she broke both her front ankles and was euthanized on the track.

Is the money and prestige worth racing animals that are not mature?  And here I am, not boycotting the industry, but sitting rapt in front of the TV, watching the pre-show and race, silently endorsing a industry that asks these horses to race hard when they are just barely 3 years old. 

It's like an addiction... but is it worth it? 

edited to add:  I found this article tonight written by Paul Moran.  It's a nice eulogy for a racehorse  without getting into the ethics.