Triumph and Tragedy On The First Saturday in May

This year's running of the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, will be remembered less for who won the race--for the record, it was Big Brown--than for what happened to the runner-up.

Eight Belles, who attempted to be the first filly since Winning Colors in 1988 (and only the fourth overall) to win the Derby, was euthanized after suffering injuries to her front ankles. This was rather sudden compared to the long, highly publicized vigil of 2006 winner Barbaro, who was injured at the Preakness Stakes, before succumbing to the needle.

While the celebration for Big Brown was taking place at one end of the Churchill Downs track, horse vans at the other end concealed Eight Belles' final moments.

Questions will be raised about the safety of the track--it was on dirt, in an era when most tracks are using artificial surfaces, and how it takes a toll on horses' legs.

This is exactly what horse racing doesn't need, to have a tragedy happen on the day of its biggest race. But other factors have been chipping away at what was once one of the most popular sports in America:

• Declining attendance and TV ratings.
• Gambling in nearly every state (it isn't just Vegas, baby)
• The race horse best known to most people in recent years is a Depression-era champion named Seabiscuit, immortalized by a Hollywood movie.

Big Brown will likely move on to the Preakness in Baltimore. If he wins there, enormous pressure will be put on the horse's handlers to have him race in the Belmont Stakes in New York in June. No horse since Affirmed in 1978 has won the Triple Crown.

But Big Brown will have that shadow hanging over him as he gallops to potential immortality. Not just for his fallen competitor, but for an entire sport.