When I was fairly young, I was very interested in horse racing, thanks to reading the Black Stallion series by Walter Farley, which has a…very idealistic view of the sport. There is something deeply compelling about watching horses which have been bred to run thundering around a track, muscles pumping, and there’s something especially thrilling about watching an underdog entry pull ahead for the win, and following the bloodlines of famous race horses. And, of course, I was especially enthralled by the Derby, which is probably the biggest event in American horse racing.

As I grew older, I learned that racing has a dark side, and I grew less enchanted by the sport, but I still follow the Derby results. I suspect that a lot of Americans are in my position, feeling repulsion for, yet interest in racing.

This year’s Derby was marred by the collapse of filly Seven Belles at the end of the race; while she came in second, she shattered her front ankles doing it, and she was euthanized on the track. Hearing that news, my heart ached not only for the filly, but for all the horses in the racing industry, which is swift, demanding, and brutal.

I heard on NPR that all of the horses running in this year’s Derby were descendants of Native Dancer, which just goes to underscore how inbred the industry is becoming. Horses are being overbred for racing, with breeders attempting to produce horses which mature quickly, so they can start racing at two, while developing strong bodies which are capable of immense speed and stamina. I can’t help but wonder if the Thoroughbred breed is declining as a result of single-minded focus on a few bloodlines.

I couldn’t find any statistics on injuries at the track, known as breakdowns, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they are up. Not only because of inbreeding, but because horses are being driven further and harder than they were in the past. Most three year old horses are simply not equipped for the grueling work of the Derby, filly or not.

A commentary in the New York Times pointed out that racing seems to get a free pass from animal activists, and while this is not strictly true, it does bear some thinking. It is a brutal sport. Of the horses bred for racing, some make it to the track, while others are sold at auction, and often picked up by people in dressage, jumping, and other equestrian sports. Of the horses that hit the track, only a fraction of those really succeed. Most are brutally worked until they are no longer useful, and then they are killed, because their bloodlines aren’t good enough for breeding.

I read a justification of the racing industry which said that if football injuries and basketball injuries and so forth were as heavily covered and televised as horse racing injuries, those sports would have critics too. But I think that’s a faulty argument. For one thing, most breakdowns are not covered and televised, and we never hear about them. For another, the people who participate in those sports choose to do so, knowing the risks. Thoroughbreds aren’t given a choice; we force them to compete, and therefore we are responsible for what happens to them.

I think people have this image that when a horse “retires,” it gets to go live on a happy farm with other horses. In fact, when racehorses retire, they have a couple of options. They can be slaughtered, they can be sold to people who don’t mind retraining them for other tasks, or they can be relocated to breeding farms.

Certainly, some race horses do have ok lives, especially after their racing careers end and they aren’t spending hours in a stall every day. But the vast majority of them have pretty crappy lives, and I think that’s a great pity. “Animals are not ours for entertainment,” says PETA, and I think they’re right. I can’t quite fathom racing as a “noble sport” anymore, and I don’t see the death of Seven Belles as noble either; I see it as evidence of an endemic problem within our culture and the racing community.

Jane Smiley wrote a piece for the New York Times about racing, arguing that the problem is more with American racing than racing in general, and she may well be right. Americans have a tendency to take things to the next level, and we run our horses fast and hard on dirt, a far cry from the more gentle races on turf in Europe. European horses are champions in their own right, and they are far less likely to break down, perhaps because of a culture which values them intrinsically, in addition to idolizing their speed and grace.

I’m not saying that American trainers, jockeys, breeders, and others in the industry don’t value horses. Obviously, they do, and many people in the industry are quite passionate about Thoroughbreds, because they are remarkable horses. But behind it all, there’s a bottom line.

Win. At any cost.