Learning The Facts

Perhaps a regular sports-caster isn't the appropriate person to be writing about horse racing.

Considering not everyone knows anything about horses at all, I would correctly presume that said sports-caster would at the very LEAST endeavor to learn a little bit about horses and racing, rather than comparing it to totally different things like dog fighting or car racing.

Also, I would assume that people who make comments on such stories would strive to be accurate and rational rather than (in most cases) downright wrong and irrational. Reading some of the comments at the end of the article only serves to enlighten me to the fact that a lot of people are totally naive about horses.

Let me point out a couple short facts:
It would be next to impossible (and completely, unfathomably cruel to try) to "save" a horse who broke two legs, let alone both front.
Barbaro and Eight Belles were not the same situation.
If we didn't have horse races, Barbaro and Eight Belles wouldn't even exist.
The jockey is not at fault.
Whipping a horse with a riding crop can't inflict much pain.
The vast majority of horses who retire from the track are perfectly sound for second careers.
Horse racing is NOT the most dangerous horse sport for horse or rider.

I'm willing to elaborate on any of these.