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  Bob Lutz  

Racing's tragedy is impossible to overlook

Played my first round of golf of the season Sunday. It showed:

What I like about horse racing is the time between when the gates open and the horses spill out until the time when one horse crosses the finish line ahead of the others.

How fast can these horses get from point A to point B? It's the essence of sports, really, and when these amazing horses are running, it's impossible not to watch.

Dying, however, is not sports.

So any elation I felt when I watched Big Brown's acceleration to victory in Saturday's Kentucky Derby was spoiled just seconds later when the race's only filly, Eight Belles, was euthanized after breaking both ankles shortly after the finish.

I don't know enough about horse racing to know whether this is an indication of its barbaric nature or just a terrible accident that tainted a glorious day.

I'm not naive enough to understand that one of horse racing's great appeals is that you can place a bet. And because so much money is involved, I do wonder how much attention is paid to the well-being of the horses.

Leave it to PETA to over-react by sending a harsh letter to presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, chiding her for placing a bet on Eight Belles.

"I regret to say that your public support of horse racing -- and specifically betting on Eight Belles -- makes you culpable in her destruction," PETA wrote. "We cannot call ourselves a civilized nation if we allow any living being to endure such abuse."

PETA, which also called for the suspension of Eight Belles' jockey, Gabriel Saez, until an investigation is complete, no doubt means well, but to take such a pointed view in this argument only makes it more difficult to find a sensible response to the tragedy.

Horse racing has been around for a long, long time. Eight Belles isn't the first horse to perish on the track and, unfortunately, will not be the last.

It is fair, though, to wonder whether everything is being done that can be done to assure the horses as much safety as possible.

• My earliest recollection of watching a sporting event happened when I was 6. It was in the old gymnasium at Derby High and one of the Panthers' best players was a guard named Stan Pulliam.

I wasn't just some 6-year-old who was there because my dad took me. I was there because I cared and I remember watching Pulliam play several games and being enamored with his ability to shoot the basketball.

Pulliam, a former successful basketball coach and the father of Wichita Heights girls basketball coach Kip Pulliam, died over the weekend. My best wishes to Kip and the rest of the Pulliam family.

And I thank Stan for his role, not a small one, in causing me to love sports.

• It's now time -- past time, actually -- for Roger Clemens to go away.

Stop talking, stop issuing statements, stop having your lawyers issue statements. Just go away.

It has been incredible to watch the reputation of one of baseball's greatest pitchers deteriorate to the point of becoming a late-night punch line.

Now, though, we're all tired of Clemens, whose reputation was first tarnished by his alleged use of steroids and HGH and now by the reported affair he had with Mindy McCready starting when he was 28 and she was 15.

Clemens issued a weird apology Monday for all of the mistakes he has committed in his life, yet refused to own up to the relationship with McCready, a country swooner who has had more problems than the subject of a Toby Keith song.

What, exactly, was Clemens apologizing for? Wait, I don't want to know. I just want him to go away.

• The more I watch the New Orleans Hornets, the more I think this upstart team just might have a chance to win it all in the NBA.

Does any team have a more potent 1-2 punch than Chris Paul and David West? They have combined to average 47.1 points during the playoffs and are often spectacular.

I also like the supporting cast of Peja Stojakovic, Jannero Pargo, Tyson Chandler, Morris Peterson, Bonzi Wells and Julian Wright, the former Kansas forward who has had an expanding role for the Hornets, averaging nearly 12 minutes during the playoffs.

Eagle sports columnist Bob Lutz co-hosts "Sports Daily" from 9-11 a.m. weekdays on KFH, 1240-AM and 98.7-FM. Reach him at 316-268-6597 or blutz@wichitaeagle.com.