Horse Racing

Animal rights activists make point
By Bradley Olson

Linda Kelly became an enemy of horse racing more than 30 years ago.

The Monkton resident was watching television July 6, 1975, along with 18 million other Americans, when the filly Ruffian suffered a catastrophic break of her right foreleg and was euthanized hours after a failed surgery.

That race was supposed to mean something, she remembered. The "equine battle of the sexes" - in which Ruffian faced off against Foolish Pleasure, a 3-year-old colt who had won the Kentucky Derby that year - was supposed to mirror the classic tennis match in which Billie Jean King beat the braggart Bobby Riggs two years earlier.

Instead, it became a rallying cry for people like Kelly, 60, who decided she could never enjoy another horse race. Unlike the tens of thousands of college students, inveterate racing fans and gamblers who streamed into the Pimlico Race Course yesterday to watch the Preakness, Kelly stood outside with about 30 protesters from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Read More

With the unfortunate deaths of two horses in two years, horse racing, as an industry, has taken a beating as of late. However, the thing to remember is that both of these horses lost their lives doing what they loved to do and that was racing.