As the sun went down over Gulfstream Park’s grandstand, horses clad in silk and spangles made their way to the backstretch, moving with huge strides and hypnotic smoothness. The lead pack of War of Will, McKinzie and Mongolian Groom were drenched in pinkish light as they sped toward the top of the stretch.

Horse races are a ritual that, in their ineffable way, unite human beings from every corner of the globe. They have a history that goes back to the 9th or 8th century bc in Asia Minor. There’s a full description of chariot racing in Homer’s Iliad and, later, the earliest recorded steed races are those of the ancient Olympic Games.

The most famous race in the world, the Kentucky Derby, has a similarly long tradition. But the 2008 death of Eight Belles and the subsequent revelation that many horses are abused, often to the point of collapse or even sudden death, have sparked an intensely painful reckoning about horse racing’s moral integrity.

It is true that there are a fair share of trainers, assistant trainers, jockeys, drivers and caretakers who love their animals, who do what they can to protect them. But it is also true that the vast majority of racehorses are owned by syndicates, and a horse’s relationship with any one of these people is rarely close enough to allow him to develop a trusting bond. And when horses are constantly trucked, flown and shipped from track to track, they have no single place to call home.

This constant bouncing around, coupled with the fact that racehorses are not trained to have a long career, makes them more susceptible to injuries and break downs. And when they do, the veterinary profession is almost always one step behind. That, in turn, leads to drug use that is rife throughout the industry.

What’s more, despite the growing awareness of these issues in the general public, it is still common for racehorses to be given drugs that aren’t approved for the sport or that can be dangerous for them. And it is still common for the drug-testing system to be flawed.

There are a lot of ways to fix these problems, but the first thing that must happen is for the industry itself to recognize that these are not isolated incidents and that a new normal exists. That will require more money for drug testing and legislative efforts to better regulate trainers and veterinarians. It will mean redefining the meaning of winning and abandoning the idea that the best way to run a race is to give an animal more drugs than it needs in order to perform at its peak.

To do that, the insider’s code of silence must end. It will mean not blowing off the concerns of animal activists or dismissing their work as propaganda. It will require a brave leap of faith by the horse racing industry to acknowledge that the old way of doing business is not in its best interest, let alone the interest of the horses themselves.