ANDERSON — Dan Eichhorn was watching Saturday’s Kentucky Derby on television when his admiration of one gifted thoroughbred race horse immediately gave way to sorrow for another.

By winning in impressive fashion, Big Brown strode across the finish line as a legitimate threat to become horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.

Then the television cameras did their job, and the celebratory mood was split-second brief.

Derby runner-up Eight Belles lay injured after breaking both front ankles. Eichhorn, the director of veterinary services at Hoosier Park, felt his heart sink.

“You just hang your head; it’s one of the sad parts of racing,” Eichhorn said. “I can’t say there is a person out there who doesn’t hurt when that happens.

“I wasn’t there,” he added, “but my assumption is that (Eight Belles) may have stumbled with one foot, caught herself with the other foot and broke it.”

Because it has been a mega-watt event on the American sports landscape for generations, the Kentucky Derby revealed the uncertainties of horse racing in front of millions of viewers.

There is risk, more so for thoroughbreds than standardbreds.

“Thoroughbreds are so much more muscular, they run so much faster and they are fine-boned,” said Eichhorn, noting that thoroughbreds race at approximately 40 miles per hour compared to 30 for standardbreds.

“They are taller horses, putting much more power into their strides, and they’re bred that way. We rarely have problems such as these in standardbred.”

Nonetheless, when a horse experiences a premature demise, everyone who owns, trains, races or simply appreciates the animal’s competitive streak feels loss.

Eight Belles is simply the latest high-profile race horse to be euthanized because of injury during competition. There have been others, including 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro.

Most, however, depart at smaller venues with far less fanfare.

Tuesday, Larry Jones, the man who trained Eight Belles, ordered drug testing as part of the thoroughbred’s autopsy as a means to cease speculation the horse may have been on steroids.

Such controversies persist in competitive horse racing the way they do in more mainstream athletic endeavors such as football and baseball.