Larry Jones on the Loss of Eight Belles

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21166659.post-6532745242885126572008-05-03T20:42:00.006-04:002008-05-04T01:20:10.574-04:00Larry Jones on the Loss of Eight BellesTrainer Larry Jones, a bit tearful at times, spoke to the media in an impromptu press conference in the Churchill Downs media center about the injury to and euthanization of Eight Belles. Accompanied by Dr. Larry Bramlage <a href="http://www.thoroughbredblog.com/2008/05/dr-bramlage-on-eight-belles.html">who spoke earlier</a>, Jones said that as the race ended he didn't notice any distress and began to work his way through the crowd to the track to unsaddle the filly. "I had a lot of trouble getting through the crowd, getting to the track and a lot of the horses were already unsaddled and going back," he said. "And we finally got down to the track, and I saw Kent (Desormeaux) coming back and he really -- you could tell, that it was not like he just won the Kentucky Derby -- he was a little bit solemn, and then that is when we first heard that a horse had broke down and I just figured it was one of the ones that had maybe run poorly." He said that even when he looked up and noticed that jockey Gabriel Saez was riding back with NBC's Donna Brothers he still didn't know what happened until Saez told him that Eight Belles was put down. "I thought how can you put a horse down? I guess, I mean we're used to trying to save them, so that's when I took off running and caught the ambulance and rode over there and needless to say when I did see her -- it just had to be done," Jones said. "She had no way of being saved." He said that if she had been in distress or had a trouble race he would have second guessed himself, but her second place finish doesn't make him think that, and he said she ran "the race of her life." "It wasn't the race, it wasn't the fact that there were 19 boys in there," he said. "It wasn't the distance of the race, she finished a mile and a quarter well." I asked him what he thought about the criticism that the sport would likely get about dirt being an inherently dangerous racing surface. "This just wasn't a track issue," Jones said. "All we have to do is gallop and stop and come home." "I'm not saying that every track should go back to dirt; I'm not saying that every track should go to synthetics, but this track today, in my wholehearted opinion, was not the issue with what happened today," he said. Jones said while he was aware that such a high-profile death will be unwanted news for horse racing, that good can come from the incident too. "Lots of good things have happened with the Barbaro fund, and we don't know what's going to happen with the Eight Belles story -- she got a lot of notoriety this week, and she probably got more notoriety after the race than we've ever imagine, we don't know what will happen. It could be lots of great things come out of it, it could be the worse day of our life and nothing good could happen." "It's the unfortunate side that every now and again you're faced with, it's something that -- it's unforeseen, you know, this is the bad part," he said. "I did get to see my son yesterday, and I got to see my daughter today, but I got to see Eight Belles every day. She was our family, she's been with us for a year -- a lot of great footage with (ESPN's) Jeannine Edwards today, and I guess it will be my last ride on her," Jones said as he began to choke up. "Losing animals like this isn't fun," he continued after he gathered his composure. "This is the unfortunate side, I don't know what to say -- we're heartbroke. We're going to miss her."Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06801414754458604594noreply@blogger.com