Pacelle said that among the Humane Society’s recommendations would be that the new federal body “examine early age racing, drug use, breeding issues that have perhaps made horses more vulnerable to breakdowns … as well as the ancillary issue of horse slaughter.” He speculated that the answer to the latter might involve “asking the industry and others to agree to voluntary limits on breeding in order to reduce the number of unwanted horses.”

Both Waldrop, the thoroughbred racing association executive, and Casner, the official of the national breeders and owners group, say federal intervention would not be welcome.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Casner, saying the industry is responding with urgency to address the issue. “I hope that as an industry we can come together and accelerate the things we need to do.”

Waldrop was more forceful in denouncing the move.

“We have so many different perspectives on any given problem, and to simply say it needs the federal government ignores the complexities,” he said. “We are much more complicated than football or any other sport. We have a gambling interest layered on top of a sport and a state layer on top of that. … The challenge is building consensus, and that’s what we do. We may not be perfect, but that’s what we do.”

It is not yet clear to what extent the sport's image has been damaged by the toll of Eight Belles and the other recent tragedies, but a recent “values and beliefs social survey” conducted by the Gallup organization the weekend after the Derby suggests that it has had an impact.

The survey found that 38 percent of Americans express support for the idea of banning horse and dog racing altogether, while 59 percent would oppose such action. By comparison, only 21 percent favored a ban on all forms of hunting.

Saying that “the line is moving as far as animals in sports," the Humane Society’s Pacelle said that the new scrutiny of the sport presents racing with an opportunity to do the right thing.

“I think it is a moment when the industry is going to be tested in terms of its ability to adjust and adapt to a more aware and sensitive public,” he said.

That is one of the few points on which he and the NTRA’s Waldrop are in agreement.

“We have an important opportunity as an industry to change some things for the better,” Waldrop said.

Taking a longer view from a perch far removed from the immediate struggle is Kenneth Shapiro, executive director of the Animals and Society Institute of Ann Arbor, Mich., who said that horse racing may be in the early stages of a struggle for its very existence.

Shapiro, who also is president of the Society and Animals Forum, an academic think tank that publishes two peer-review journals dealing with human-animal relationships, said that “animal entertainment” in general has come under increasing pressure in recent years, citing Britain’s 2004 ban on fox hunting and the fact that bull fighting “is in trouble” in Spain.

He said the thoroughbred racing industry is well entrenched and has long had a reputation as a sport with performers that are treated well. But that could prove to be a double-edged sword if abuses and accidents continue to dominate the headlines, he said.

“The thing that damaged greyhound racing was that the dogs were not taken care of and the sport became so closely associated with the gambling aspect,” he said. “… After a while the public begins to say, ‘You’re producing a problem, and what’s the payoff?' At that point the attitude of ‘Let them buy a lottery ticket if they want to gamble’ takes over.”

Ultimately, Shapiro said, it is not the animal rights groups that “feel this is exploitation, that horses weren’t made to be ridden, that this is a partnership that is one-sided” that will decide whether racing survives. It will be the mainstream fans — “the people who tune in to watch the Preakness and the Kentucky Derby and go to the track once in a while.”

“Will they slowly start to think about horse racing the same way they have come to think about greyhound racing and wearing a fur coat?” he wondered aloud, not quite daring to guess at the eventual outcome.  “Looking way down the road, I suspect it’s going to change radically or go the way of greyhound racing.  My guess is that it will have to go through some fairly major reforms."

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