I suppose I should touch on the Kentucky Derby in this space, the convincing run by this year’s Triple Crown hopeful, Big Brown, the post-race tragedy of Eight Belles’ fatal breakdown and subsequent dialogue on possible changes in horse racing. There’s been a lot of ink expended on the subject already, and the main point of most articles has been that racing needs to change. That’s an honest gut reaction, one that’s easy to understand given the Barbaro disaster at the Preakness two years ago and Eight Belle’s on-track death this past Saturday.
But wholesale changes? I’m not so sure.
Like boxing, the physical aspect of horse racing – large, muscular animals running at top speed while carrying a jockey on very thin legs – leaves the door open for the occasional tragedy. It’s one of the occupational hazards of watching those sports, and to a lesser extent, any sport. It’s also one of the unspoken truths about athletics, and the reason that accidents and injuries get so much attention – the competition, while not always life-or-death, is fraught with the possibility of pain. Does that make it barbaric? I don’t think so – competition is part of life, after all – but that doesn’t mean that steps can’t sometimes be taken to make the competition safer. In football, that’s meant the evolution of helmets and pads and rules regulating tackling techniques. NASCAR has added foam barriers to the outside of racetracks and head restraints inside cars. Hockey has integrated plastic visors and other equipment.
The point is, there’s no safety guarantee in sports, especially those which involve animals. Human athletes understand instructions from referees and signs of caution. Horses don’t have that luxury. They’re bred to run, and run hard, consequences be damned. In the case of Eight Belles, who broke both of her ankles while galloping past the finish line at the Derby, jockey Gabriel Saez said he felt nothing wrong with the horse during the race. On Monday, he said in a statement, “All I could sense under me was how eager she was to race.” That hasn’t stopped People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) from calling for his suspension and arguing for major changes in horse racing, including a ban on using a whip or racing horses younger than 3.
And while racing needs to now examine itself if it hopes to remain a major American sport and not be perceived as some kind of gruesome sideshow, statistics from the American Association of Equine Practitioners show that American racing suffers approximately 1.6 fatalities for every 1,000 horses that start a race. That’s a remarkably low number considering the strain that these animals are often under. Barbaro took on iconic status during his attempted recovery from a leg injury two years ago, but the reality is that few people even knew about the horse before the race. Why did he become such a cultural phenomenon? It’s hard to say. Naturally, compassion for a wounded animal and his at-times-heroic healing struggle captured some part of our collective imagination, but he was really no different from any other horse injured during some lesser stakes race.
The governing bodies of horse racing certainly need to examine their sport’s practices and do whatever they can to lessen the impact on these animals, or breed them to be more durable, but part of racing’s drama is the incredible strain the horses battle through – a spectacle that is simultaneously exhilarating and slightly terrifying to watch. Maybe spacing out the Triple Crown races – moving the Preakness to June and the Belmont to July – might help reduce stress on the horses. Examining track surfaces, both synthetic and dirt, could be another preemptive measure. But the possibility of tragedy in horse racing – and the spectacle at Churchill Downs this past weekend – is an undeniable part of the sport’s legitimacy and emotional nature.
Away from the tragedy of the racetrack, the NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing, and a quick look through the remaining title contenders in each sport shows a couple of clear title contenders. The remaining four teams in the National Hockey League – the Detroit Red Wings, Dallas Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers – have obviously been the best teams in the playoffs. But as far as favorites go, only the Red Wings and Penguins were expected to get this far. Both have had a relatively easy path to the conference finals, with the Wings rolling over the Nashville Predators and sweeping the Colorado Avalanche and Penguins shutting out the Ottawa Senators and dispatching my New York Rangers in five games.
It’s hard to pick against either of those teams at this point. The Wings are dominant at home, and the Stars are coming off a hard-fought and tiring series against the Anaheim Ducks. Goalie Marty Turco will have to be at the top of his game for Dallas to even have a chance in this series, and even then, Detroit’s goal-scorers – led by Johan Franzen, Tomas Holmstrom and Pavel Datsyuk – are hard to stop. The Penguins are also an offensive dynamo, and even though Philadelphia will give them a physically intense series, it’s hard to imagine to Flyers winning any high-scoring games. Both of the favorites should win in five or six games, setting up a Detroit-Pittsburgh showdown for the Stanley Cup.
In the NBA, the picture is a bit murkier. Out West, the Hornets and Lakers have been most impressive so far, particularly New Orleans, who jumped all over the Spurs in the first two games of their second-round series at home. Their fast-breaking style has kept aging San Antonio from getting into an offensive rhythm, and young point guard Chris Paul has been stellar. The Lakers have played exactly like a No. 1-seed should, sweeping the Nuggets in the first round and holding the Jazz at bay so far in round 2.
The East has also played out as expected, albeit with the heavily favored Celtics getting an unexpected challenge in the first round against the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks exposed some serious flaws in the Celts before dropping a Game 7 beatdown on the road, setting up an intriguing Celtics/Cavaliers matchup in the Eastern semifinals. On the other side, Detroit has played solid defensively in seizing a 2-0 series lead against the Orlando Magic. I think the Cavs, behind LeBron James, can upset Boston, but I don’t think they’ll get by the Pistons, who should be able to finish off Orlando. Detroit would then meet the Lakers, who can handle a Hornets team that will be banged-up after a physical series with the Spurs, in the NBA Finals.
Two champions from Detroit in one spring? It could happen.