Eight Belles: PETA Spokeswoman Can't Answer Mike Tirico's Questions

Yesterday I questioned whether some horse racing opponents were damaging their own cause in the wake of Eight Belles' death at the Kentucky Derby. It turns out that one prominent horse racing opponent was in the process of damaging her own cause just as I was writing that.

Nicole Matthews, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was on Mike Tirico's ESPN Radio show yesterday afternoon. And when she was asked to defend PETA's position that Eight Belles' jockey, Gabriel Saez, should be suspended, she revealed herself as completely incapable. Here's a transcript, based on the portion of the interview that was re-played on ESPN Radio this morning:

Tirico: Did he do something that other jockeys haven't done in the recent past?

Matthews: Well, horse racing is a dirty, greedy money game.

Tirico: OK, that's a big picture question, Nicole, and I understand that and we can get that for a brief moment in a minute. But come back to my point. Did he do something that somebody in the seventh race at the Derby didn't do?

Matthews: Well, you know, thoroughbreds are raced on hard dirt surfaces, too young and too often and they're whipped viciously as they come down the stretch.

Tirico: Let me try my question a third time. Did he do something that a jockey didn't do in the sixth race at Churchill Downs Saturday

Matthews: [inaudible] horses is a standard practice, of course.

If PETA can't answer the basic question of whether Saez did anything different from any other jockey, then it shouldn't take the position that Saez should be suspended. Advocates for animal rights have many valid points about the dangers of horse racing, and I personally believe that the sport needs to make changes, including banning the whip. But if PETA can't answer the most fundamental questions about this situation, then it doesn't have much to add to the conversation.