Seven nameless horses

Information flows by us all the time, but sometimes a story gets stuck in our heads. I keep thinking about a story we ran under the headline, Cold Took Toll at Turfway, about how winter weather affected betting on horse races.

The real story, for me, lay in the last few paragraphs. Seven horses were euthanized because of racing injuries during what's called the winter/spring meet, from Jan. 1 to April 5.

The great horse Barbaro's injury and death became a national tragedy. Millions of us calculated his chances, not for winning, but for living, and bet on him even if he was a long shot. But the seven horses that were put down at Turfway were viewed, I guess, as simply a shame.

The cold did indeed take a toll at Turfway.

The loss that registers with me has nothing to do with the hollow spot in bettors' wallets. It's the seven hard-working horses whose names we don't even know.