Mitchell Commission Needed for Horse Racing?

Readers may note, or not as it turns out, that I have been devoting a lot of real estate to the Derby and the Eight Belles incident- and I'm not much of a racing fan or fanatic of horses.

Well, I'm at again today while cyclones devour Myanmar, Somalia descends into a total food crisis, and we approach two huge primaries in Indy and N.C. Perhaps it's the overwhelming magnitude of those global events or my fatigue of this gas tax nonsense, but it's really the sight of that filly collapsing and then being put down that got to me.

So here's the take away: The media discussion has turned towards systemic poor and irresponsible breeding, speed over durability. There is also an indictment of pain killer and drug use within the industry, the effects of which mask pain and poor heredity with the animals, not to say also enhance performance.

William Rhoden of the Times is calling horse racing animal cruelty, just as bad as greyhound racing.

Here's a lively debate between Rhoden and Washington Post's Andrew Beyer on the Newshour tonight. A great listen.

ESPN's Pat Forde's call for the sport to examine itself.

This is horse racing blogger Railbird's take on it. Spoiler alert... She's moved on. To the Preakness.

Why was Eight Belles euthanized? We learn why from the same reasons Barbaro was put down.

Answer: It's a horse anatomy issue.