On the Monday after, when it should have been just the opposite, the sport of horse racing was riding low in the saddle.
Saturday, at the grotto of the sport, a star named Big Brown was born into public consciousness by storming down the homestretch, under the twin spires of Churchill Downs, and winning the Kentucky Derby in dominating fashion.
It was what racing wanted, needed, lusts after. There hasn't been a Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978, and the projection of such a star seems to be the sport's perceived trampoline to growth.
Big Brown started in the 20th hole, so far from the rail and from access to the shortest trip around the 1 1/4 -mile route that, despite obviously superior talents, many experts figured a win was unlikely. When he powered past the field to finish nearly five lengths in front, racing stood on top of the mountain and shook its fists in joy.
Less than a minute later, the fists unclenched and the joy drained.
Once again, at a key moment, in a high-profile race, a horse had broken down. The story wasn't victory and glory now. It was death.
Eight Belles, a filly who had run against 19 boys and beat all but one of them, collapsed about a quarter of a mile past the finish line. She was almost at full stop when both ankles suddenly fractured, one break piercing the skin and opening up to the likely contamination that brings the decision to put the horse down. Which is what happened.
By Monday, racing was sitting on a folding chair in a windowless room with flood lights glaring down. Instead of celebration, it got inquisition.
The questions came fast and furious, anyway. The answers are more elusive.
What's wrong with thoroughbred breeding that so many great ones break down? Barbaro did so two years ago in the Preakness, then George Washington in last year's Breeders' Cup. And who can forget, no matter the passage of time, the agony of Ruffian and Go For Wand, limbs dangling grotesquely?
Should fillies be allowed to race against colts? Is there a gender-related physical flaw?
Is the pressure of a Triple Crown, with the three most important races of their lives spread over only five weeks, simply too much physically for a 3-year-old to handle?
And what about jockeys whipping horses down the stretch?
Nicole Matthews, a spokeswoman for PETA, the animal rights group, went on ESPN radio to label racing "a dirty, greedy money game." She also characterized jockey Gabriel Saez's stick work down the stretch on Eight Belles as "vicious whipping" and called for his suspension.
