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Stumble It!The biggest horse race of the year ended in tragedy Saturday as Eight Belles collapsed a few hundred feet past the finish line.
Big Brown rounded the last corner, ridden by soon to be three time Kentucky Derby winner Kent Desormeaux in first place. The pair crossed the finish line almost five lengths ahead of Eight Belles, the only Filly in the race. Soon after Eight Belles finished, she collapsed on the track. The track veternarian soon found that the horse had fractured both front ankles and had to be euthanized immediately.
"She was never in any pain. It was something that just had to be done. She went out as a champion," said Larry Jones, Eight Belles' trainer.
Eight Belles is one of two horses to be put down over injuries sustained in a triple crown race in recent years. Barbaro, a Colt, fractured three ankle bones in the 2006 Preakness. He survived several months before his injury became infected and he had to be euthanized.
The Kentucky Derby is the first race in the triple crown. Big Brown will try and continue to win the coveted triple crown series in Baltimore, MD. at the Preakness Stakes on May 17, then at the Belmont stakes in New York on June 7.
