I don't think I'll watch the Preakness Stakes this Saturday. I seem to have lost the heart —- and stomach —- for watching horses race.

As a guy who grew up near the world's most famous thoroughbred track in Louisville, Ky., and who has watched nearly every big race on television for four decades, I find it hard to explain why I'm tuning out a chance to watch a potential Triple Crown winner. Let's just say I've grown tired of seeing beautiful animals sacrificed to the breeding and betting game.

Two years ago, Barbaro ended his brilliant, unbeaten career when he broke down in front of the Pimlico grandstand during the Preakness. Eight months later, he was dead. Then, this year in the Kentucky Derby, a filly named Eight Belles broke both front legs while galloping out after her unexpected second-place finish. She was euthanized on the Churchill Downs track.

The breakdown of these two highly prized thoroughbreds —- witnessed by millions who watch horse racing only three times a year —- demands dramatic change. Among other things, the industry needs to:

> Make the Triple Crown races a showcase for 4-year-olds and stop relying on the spindly, immature legs of 3-year-olds who have been bred for speed and not for endurance. Owners and trainers would cut back on the races they enter their colts and fillies in as 2- and 3-year-olds, giving their bodies and bones more time to mature.

Additionally, let's space the running of the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes out over a longer period of time. The races now are held within five weeks of each other in the spring and early summer, which is too demanding a schedule.

> Change breeding patterns. American thoroughbreds are becoming increasingly fragile —- favoring speed over durability. Sending 3-year-old champions to the breeding barns as 4-year-olds not only deprives race fans of watching their favorites over a longer career, it alters the gene pool and will lead to even more injury problems in the future.

> Insist that all tracks convert from dirt to synthetic racing surfaces. The science is still not conclusive on this, but it strongly suggests that the synthetic tracks reduce the risk of catastrophic injuries. The tracks will complain because the initial cost for converting is high —- as much as $10 million. Too bad.

I've come to reluctantly acknowledge that the thoroughbred industry is horribly out of step with this nation's collective consciousness about animal cruelty. It spends far too much time debating about how much owners and trainers should get from wagering over the Internet than it does actually doing something to prolong the lives and racing careers of the animals that sustain its beauty and capture the emotion of the public.

The sight of Eight Belles —- immobilized on the Churchill Downs track as Big Brown galloped past her to the winner's circle —- sickened everyone who saw it two weeks ago. When two equine ambulances rushed to her side, it wasn't to rescue her. It was to block the view of the crowd from having to witness her death.

With two of the three Triple Crown races marred by tragedy in the last two years, the industry needs to understand the stakes. "It could get to the point that if we don't do something about it, nobody is going to watch the races," Arthur Hancock, owner of Stone Farm and a two-time Derby-winning owner told The Courier-Journal of Louisville last week.

Racing enthusiasts like me have to be reminded that the big crowds, the beauty and the spectacle of the Triple Crown races aren't typical of the sport. On most race days, at tracks across the country —- in the stifling heat of midsummer or in the drizzling, cold rain of November —- the grandstands hold a few thousand bettors. The races are being staged for the money that can be generated by simulcast betting at other tracks and on the Internet.

Horses fall in those races, too. Horses running races you have never heard of still break their legs, and they still have to be euthanized on the track. It happens. It is a business. You can't save them all.

Millions of dollars were spent trying to save Barbaro. Eight Belles, running the race of her young life, never got the chance to be saved. Let's honor both of them by putting fewer of their amazing breed at risk.

> Mike King is a member of the editorial board. His column appears Thursdays.

mking@ajc.com