Eight Belles was quietly interred at Churchill Downs outside the Kentucky Derby Museum on Monday, August 25. Her cremated remains were placed in a hand made box and gently placed into the ground, in original Derby soil, under a Little Gem magnolia that is expected to bloom now and again in May.
The brief ceremony was closed to the public and was witnessed only by employees of the Museum and adjacent cafe as well as the grounds crew. The public ceremony, "celebrating her life" will be on September 7.
It is amazingly ironic that Eight Belles and Barbaro, the two horses that, in my opinion, have done more to change racing because of their untimely demises than any that have won the Derby, will be memorialized within a few hundred feet of each other. One won the Derby; the other came in second.
And both have legacies that are greater than their greatest victories. What Barbaro started, Eight Belles brought to a boil and the pot is still simmering.
It is, of course, tragic that these horses had to die to get their sport to 'fess up and hopefully, clean up, but it says something powerful about the continuing impact of horses on our society. Why these two and why now are important questions to consider even as we continue to craft their legacies.
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3 comments:
Another great post. Thank you. You certainly have one of the more thoughful blogs.
But it is extremely disappointing to learn that these fine racehorses were cremated rather than given the honor of being buried "head, heart, and hooves" that has always been the tradition when it comes to special horses.
TvNB
Thanks for your nice words. I too know of the racing tradition of burying the head, heart and hooves and in fact I believe most of the horses in the cemetery behind the Kentucky Derby Museum are buried in this manner but I think the recent trend is in keeping with the practice of cremating small animals.
It is very expensive, by the way to cremate a horse and the box of ashed is very large and heavy.
We will be paying our respects to Eight Belles in September at Churchill Downs. It is unfortuntate that the proflicate industry of horseracing is seeing only baby steps of overhauling in a 40 billion dollar a year business that should be banned. "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Mahatma Gandhi
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