Normal people have normal markers for the change of seasons. They might observe spring, for example, by the first buds, bravely sneaking up through the soil; the first robin, trilling in the barren tree; or, in a more sporting vein, the words “pitchers and catchers report.”
But racing folk are hardly normal people, and we have [...]
As we walked past the paddock on our way out of Laurel Park on Saturday, three little girls came bounding down the stairs, faces creased by gigantic smiles.
“We won!” one of them exclaimed.
“We won,” another agreed.
“We won we won we won,” the third chimed in.
St. John’s Gospel’s narrow victory in Saturday’s Private Terms Stakes at [...]
There was half a million people there from all denominations, the Catholic, the Protestant, the Jew, the Presbyterian; there was yet not animosity, no matter what persuasion; but ‘failte’ and hospitality inducing fresh acquaintance.
– lyric from “Galway Races”
Though I love Irish music, the doings of O’Malley’s March, the alt-Celtic band fronted by Maryland governor Martin [...]
It’s a day of odds and ends…
Magna Bankruptcy
As has been widely reported in both the blogosphere and — in a surprising twist — the mainstream media, Magna Entertainment, the company which owns Laurel Park and Pimlico (as well as Santa Anita and Gulfstream) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware.
Oh, wait. It’s bad [...]
If horses were, like humans, line-drawers, then surely Mass Charles would draw a line at 1:32 p.m. yesterday, and thus divide his life into before and after.
Before, he is a sound, healthy six year-old thoroughbred racehorse. He is the 9-5 favorite comfortably stalking the speed duel up ahead. He has, as track announcer Dave Rodman [...]
The blogosphere and what little mainstream media still pay attention to racing are full of insightful — or, on more than one occasion, nonsensical — analysis of racing’s problems: too many drugs, too many races, too many tracks, too many breakdowns, too much takeout. And so on. And so forth.
There’s much to recommend these analyses [...]
