The next day, her trainer raced three more horses, remarking, "back to business as usual."

An outpouring of criticism of racing by respected sports writers followed.

Eight Belles shatters both front ankles and collapses after crossing the finish line.
(Photo: Brian Bohannon/Associated Press)

Interviewed on the Lehrer Report, he added: “The industry shows a "wanton disregard for the health of animals...and there is nothing you can do to change the essence of it.... Thoroughbred racing is a brutal sport."

Track personnel try to hold down Eight Belles. (Photo: Brian Bohannon/Associated Press)

Sally Jenkins in The Washington Post noted, "According to to several estimates, there are 1.5 career-ending breakdowns for every 1,000 racing starts in the United States. That's an average of two per day."

Thousands more die every year, either because they were not fast enough or because they succumbed to bleeding in the lungs or heart attacks.

Bleacher Report sportswriter Ed Berliner describes racing as "a spectator sport that needs to pass into the history books and join other barbaric and greedy spectator pastimes that employ animals for amusement. There is...little difference between horse racing and cock fights, bull fighting and dog racing." Racehorses, he writes, "are used for nothing more than making money by some who reside in a dark and wretched corner of society, knowing full well they can buy them, race them, abuse them, and kill them without a second thought." His article ends with the statement that racing "properly continues to lose fans, interest, and credibility. And would lose many more if people only wanted to know the truth."