Happily Unbridled

Proud Spell, that game filly that shows up every time she’s asked, is not headed to the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita next month. Instead, she’ll be turned out to rest and just be a horse for awhile at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky.

Proud Spell finished second in her last race, the $750,000 Fitz Cotillion Stakes (gr II) in her most recent start. She had previously won the Grade I Kentucky Oaks and the Alabama this year. She has won seven of twelve starts with earnings over $2 million.

Trainer Larry Jones indicated that once Proud Spell has had a rest, they will evaluate her for a possible four-year-old campaign.

It’s unfortunate that this stellar filly will not be seen in the Breeders’ Cup this year but she’s run every month since February against some of the best competition in the nation and it’s good to know she’s going to get a well-deserved break.

Speaking of Larry Jones, he announced this week that he plans to retire by the end of 2009. He says the tragedy of Eight Belles breakdown after her amazing second-place finish in the Kentucky Derby has taken a lot of fun out of training for him and he thinks about her every day. There have also been tampering incidents and personnel problems at his barns which contributed to his decision to retire.

Obviously Larry Jones is a man who loves the horses in his barn as he loves his children, and we can only imagine the pain he has endured these past months following Eight Belles death. In 2007 he campaigned the plucky Hard Spun who looked like the winner in the Kentucky Derby that year until Street Sense flew up the rail, passing about 17 horses in what seemed like a dozen strides, to overtake Hard Spun right before the wire.

Larry Jones is an excellent trainer, and more importantly, a true horseman, so no doubt anything he does will include working with the horses he loves so much. We are sad to see him go and we wish him well in the future.

This is a difficult post to write because I am a horse lover above all else … I often go to the track just to watch the horses run and never place a bet. They are so beautiful and they love to run … but they are also very fragile creatures and catastrophic breakdowns can happen at any time and at any place. Not just on the track but on the trail rides, in the stable, in the paddock, in the pasture. A horse can rear and strike its head and die in an instant.  Like everyone else I was stricken with grief when Go For Wand broke down and even today, all these years later, I have tears in my eyes when I think of that horrific ending to the battle to the wire. Barbaro, who captured the hearts of the world with his incredible struggle to survive, broke all our hearts when he could no longer fight the effects of laminitis.

So without question one of the most devastating days of this past year for horse lovers and horse racing fans was the tragic breakdown of the beautiful Eight Belles who ran such a gallant race to finish second to Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby. It was day of exhilaration and amazement at the way Big Brown ran his race to such a commanding victory and how Eight Belles ran the race of her lifetime to finish ahead of the rest. There was no indication at any time that she was in distress or in pain. She finished well and was galloping out with her ears up when, for no apparent reason, both her front ankles gave way and she collapsed on the track. It was an unbelievable and horrifying moment. The outriders and the horse ambulance rushed to her side to attend to the fallen heroine but with both front legs broken, there was no way to save her.

On September 7, this courageous filly was memorialized in a public ceremony in the garden of the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs. About 200 people from all over the country gathered for this emotional farewell. Her remains are interred there at Churchill Downs and a plaque has been placed on a Magnolia Tree in the garden in her honor.

Her trainer, Larry Jones, spoke about his loving association with this daughter of Unbridled’s Song. There’s no question that his love for this remarkable filly is genuine and he is still grieving over her loss.

Her tragic death however has ignited a fervor for change in the horse racing industry. Medication and equipment changes have already been implemented by the Thoroughbred industry to promote the safety of these incredible athletes. We hope that this impetus for change continues and in addition to the other changes that there will one day be a central racing commission to which everyone in the industry is accountable. We owe them no less.

Eight Belles is gone … let us never forget her beauty and her incredible spirit.

Rest in peace our beautiful Belle.