Horse racing on congressional hot seat - MarketWatch

Horse racing on congressional hot seat - MarketWatch: "Horse racing on congressional hot seat
High-profile deaths of Eight Belles, Barbaro prompt hearings
By William Spain, MarketWatch
Last update: 6:29 p.m. EDT June 18, 2008
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- On the eve of a public grilling by Congress probing a recent spate of highly publicized racehorse deaths in the United States, track operators defended their overall safety records while hedging on the creation of a centralized governing body in a series of letters to the legislators overseeing the hearings.
A House panel is looking at whether the industry has in place sufficient, consistent standards to minimize inbreeding, doping and other practices that may lead to injury or death.
It was prompted by the death of Eight Belles, the filly who broke down and had to be euthanized minutes after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby last month. That tragedy followed two other high-profile deaths, those of 2006 Derby winner Barbaro and two-time European champ George Washington, put down after getting hurt in the 2007 Breeders Cup Classic in November.
Heavy publicity surrounding those events has drawn calls from politicians and other quarters for more stringent rules on racing and the creation of a national entity to oversee racing, much like those that rule"