Eight Belles Memorial

A few weeks ago, I was in our local electric supply store getting hard to find bulbs for a particular fixture and the customer ahead of me was sporting an Eight Belles baseball cap. It's one of those things that you can't help but notice. When she was waiting for the clerk to write up her order, I had to ask her about it. It turns out that she and her family are good friends of Rick Porter and she had been wearing the hat since he gave it to her at the ill-fated Kentucky Derby this past May.

She also told me she had been invited to attend the Memorial Service but prior obligations would prevent her from being there. "I dearly wish I could go," she sighed. "It was such a tragedy and she was such an amazing horse."

Of course these were the overwhelming sentiments that were expressed at the Memorial Service last Sunday, held in the garden of the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs. Trainer Larry Jones held back tears admitting, "It still tears me up as bad as the day it happened," to the approximately 200 people in attendance.

The Fans of Barbaro were well represented and a bouquet of roses from the group was prominently displayed next to the plaque that marked her grave. "Eight Belles touched a lot of hearts," owner Rick Porter said simply.

Both Jones and Porter have borne the brunt of criticism leveled at the sport in the wake of Eight Belles' tragic demise and both have been advocates of change in the rules governing steroid use. Blood tests revealed that Eight Belles did not test positive for steroids.

Both are adamant however about the need for a sport specific commissioner to govern horse racing and are a bit concerned that all the attention that Eight Belles brought to the sport may die down between Triple Crown events.

"I don't think we've done anything really but form some committees, and its already drifted away," Porter noted. "We need a commissioner. We need to have everybody accountable to one (governing body.)"

Public displays such as Sunday's event continue to keep the issue in the news and until we see some actual reforms in place, we need to make sure horses like Eight Belles and Barbaro are not forgotten.