HORSE RACING IS FAAAANNNTASTIC!

by WCT, The Ship of Fools

Ok, so go ahead and strike this from the record. I have done a complete 180 on horse racing. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a fev-ah! And the only prescription, is more horse racing!!

Maybe that was a little over the top, but I am excited about the potential that history could be made at tomorrow’s Belmont Stakes. And for the first time in a while, the race has subplots.

First, two weeks ago, Big Brown’s trainer Richard Dutrow, started popping off about how great his horse was, and how nobody else had a chance in the Belmont (incidentally, is there anything better than a horse trainer talking trash about his horse? Is this supposed to be like bulletin board material that the other horses are supposed to look at?). Dutrow said Big Brown would be in the winner’s circle and the rest of the field would be just getting to the quarter pole. Awesome. Then he went one step further and said that after Big Brown is done dusting the rest of the field in Belmont, he is going to win something called the Travers Stakes in August, and the Breeders’ Cup Classic in October. How can you not love this guy?

Not only that, but then there was the intrigue surrounding this mysterious super-horse from Japan that they (whoever “they” are) have hand-picked to beat Big Brown and flown in for the race. Its almost like this whole story is out of a movie or something.

Then, as if all of those weren’t enough, now we have the mystery of the “cracked hoof,” and how it will affect Big Brown in his pursuit of Horsey Immortality. This caused ESPN to seek out and interview numerous equine podiatrists to get their expert opinion.

(Note: I’m not kidding, they actually interviewed equine podiatrists. I mean, what makes someone want to pursue equine podiatry? Do you love the feet, but hate toes? I don’t know. Ok, back to the post…)

So now, we sit on the eve of what Dutrow calls a “foregone conclusion.” We have the Chad Johnson of horse trainers, bringing an injured (?) horse, into a historic race, against a field that includes a mysterious super-horse from the far east, hand-selected to thwart history. Priceless. So will there be history? Or heartbreak once again? Will Big Brown be just an afterthought who couldn’t get all three legs of the Triple Crown like Smarty Jones and Afleet Alex, or will he join historic horses like Secretariat, or Affirmed (thank you Wikipedia!) on the equine Mount Rushmore? Either way at least it will provide more camera time for jockey Kent Desormeaux’s wife, and that ain’t bad.