Thoroughbreds deserve greener pastures.

A home for Kentucky Derby winners should be sunshine, bluegrass and pretty mares waiting to make babies who can fly. There should be rolling pastures, white board fences and shade trees galore. Those great athletes should be fed, groomed and sheltered into old age. They are treasures. They made dreams come true.

If you thought Derby winners already lived in such luxury, you're forgiven for not knowing the whole, sad truth. Even racing people are appalled by the news from Japan.

The Blood-Horse, a thoroughbred industry magazine in Kentucky, has reported that Ferdinand. the 1986 Derby winner and 1987 Horse of the Year, likely was taken to a Japanese slaughter-house last year. There he would have been butchered for human consumption. That, and ground up for pet food.

Anyone who was at Churchill Down on the first Saturday in May 1986 remembers Ferdinand. He was moving with Bill Shoemaker up, in pink-and-blue silks, in the stretch, behind a wall horses, the race lost--until Shoemaker, more than once broken into pieces by failing horses, had a decision to make.

Go wide around three horses? Cautious.

Dive to a sliver of air on the rail? Dangerous.

Later, asked how long he had to decide, Shoemaker said, "One-two-three-BOOM."