Dr. Bramlage on Eight Belles

Dr. Larry Bramlage, the on-call equine doctor at Churchill Downs, held a press conference after filly Eight Belles collapsed coming out of her second place finish in the Kentucky Derby and was euthanized.

"She has finished the race and was around the turn at the 7/8ths pole around the backstretch and she was by one of the outriders -- he saw both front ankles collapses and the initial physical examination -- of course there was no x-ray -- it's obvious from the physical examination that she had condylar fractures in both sides and the left front opened the skin -- broke through the skin and was contaminated...and at least one of the sesamoids broke, so she didn't have a front leg to stand on...she was immediately euthanized," he said.

Bramlage said that the injury occurred in both legs in the same stride. He said that while it is not "terribly unheard of " for a horse to have some injury that is bilateral -- in both legs -- he had never seen an injury like this at the end of a race.

"In my years of racing, I've never seen this type of injury at the end of the race," he said. "We were already past the wire and everyone had breathed a big sigh of relief."

When asked, he said that there was a chance that there could have been microfactures in the legs that worsened during the race, however, he said while that scenario was probable -- and it may be even likely -- he didn't have enough information to say for certain.

He said he does not think this incident is a reason to suggest that fillies should not run against colts.

"One incident is not an epidemic," he said. "As bad as it seems right now, it's once incident -- fillies race against colts on an intermittent basis."

He also said that he does not think the breakdown of Eight Belles would have been prevented by Polytrack.

"I don't think that you can look at the injury on the racetrack and say that Polytrack could have prevented it," he said. "This is not like Eight Belles was deep in the middle of a stretch battle and hit a bad step, she was done with the race and was all the way through to the end, and I don't think the forces on her legs pulling up would be virtually any different on an artificial surface.

"I doubt there would have been any difference , she could have been on the grass or on the dirt," he said.