Date Set for Eight Belles Memorial

A date has been set for the memorial for the filly Eight Belles, who finished second in this year’s Kentucky Derby. She collapsed moments after the race when she suffered fractures in both front legs. Eight Belles was later euthanized on the track.The Kentucky Derby Museum announced in June the ashes of the horse would be interred on the grounds, and now a ceremony for that interment has been set for September 7th. Spokesperson Wendy Treinen says part of the ceremony will include a bell choir and a poem written by the Porter family, which owned Eight Belles.She says after the ceremony, visitors to the museum can pay their respects."Eight Belles’s ashes will be interred right outside the Kentucky Derby Museum’s doors," says Treinen, "there will be a magnolia tree that blooms all summer long, at the site of her ashes, and a small plaque will be there honoring her with a couple lines from the poem the Porter family has written."Eight Belles was one of only five fillies to win or place in the Kentucky Derby. She’ll be the only non-Derby winner interred at the museum.