Guest Commentary: From Tragedy to Triumph to Immortality

Published 8:49 am Wednesday, June 4, 2008

By Mike Hennington

Special to The Star

With the Belmont Stakes just days away, I was remembering watching the Kentucky Derby race just last month.

Some of you who keep up with horse racing know that accidents and horses breaking down after or during a race is just part of the whole sport. It is no different than any other sport, I reckon. It is just so sad to watch magnificent animals who are bred to do a certain thing end up getting hurt and having to be euthanized on the track or soon after because of some kind of accident.

Unfortunately, horses are not like other athletes. If they break something, usually they cannot be saved because they cannot stay still long enough to allow their bodies to be healed.

For me, it goes way back in the 1970s when the great filly, Ruffian, broke her leg in a match race and had to be euthanized.

It was one of those unique stories where the filly supposedly could not run with the boys. She had been kept out of the Kentucky Derby and the other races because people did not think she compete with the guys even though she had been quite successful.

But after a lot of public pressure and after winning some races, the public outcry was too much for them to not have a match race with her and the Kentucky Derby winner, Foolish Pleasure.

That was back in 1975. And because we had horses, I can remember it like yesterday. There was so much anticipation as they walked onto the track. She was a beautiful black mare and she had that arrogant walk like she knew she was going to do something special on that day.

It was one of those pivotal moments in sports where the nation was watching and waiting! It is hard to get those special moments because they are so rare and because somehow it was bigger than sports. It was a drama waiting to unfold and there it was waiting for us to watch it play out.

They came out of the gates and she jumped out to a lead, albeit a small one. And then Foolish Pleasure, the Kentucky Derby winner, moved ahead by a nose. But this was her day to shine. It was like watching an athlete saying “No You Don’t!” She pulled ahead again and they broke the speed at the quarter of a mile post.

Some 58,000 people were standing and 18 million were watching on television as the “Queen of the Fillies” was giving the proverbial finger to all of her doubters. And then in one brief instant, she pulled up. One of the bones in her ankle had broken.

But what makes it so sad but also somehow great was that she knew she was hurt but she was still running. Her heart was made for this. Running was in her blood. It was what she lived for and it was how she died.

You could hear the collective moans and groans from thousands of people and the millions watching on television. We were watching something so sad but so heroic at the same time.

And just like last year when Barbaro was going for the Triple Crown and last month when the filly, Eight Belles, ran down the home stretch with nostrils flaring only to pull up lame after crossing the finish line, I’m sure there were many many people like me going back to that sunny day in 1975 — when perhaps one of the greatest horses at one of the greatest moments in sports history showed us what the Heart of a Champion surely is.

She was not making millions of dollars like the athletes that play other sports. She was simply doing what those horses do.

It is the purity of true athleticism and a true greatness you can only get in sports! It is not about endorsements or contracts or even glory. It is just running because it is in your bloodline which is passed down from generation to generation.

So here is to Eight Belles, Ruffian, Barbaro, and all of the other horses that run into immortality. And, in doing so, burn their heroics into our collective memories. I just hope there is a pasture in Heaven so they can run eternally!