From the Civil War to the taming of the West to the Kentucky Derby, horses have played an essential role in the forging of American history, and the farrier has been there for every stride.
In 2007 I wrote a book called Fanatic: 10 Things All Sports Fans Should Do Before They Die, which chronicled my year-long odyssey to a roster of iconic sporting events. The list -- Super Bowl, Daytona 500, Masters, Final Four, Kentucky Derby, Wimbledon, day game at Wrigley, Ohio State-Michigan, Lambeau in December and Opening Day at Fenway -- was not so much an attempt to identify the greatest events, but to see first hand the ones I had always wanted to check out but for one reason or another had never made it to.
These lists are not mere compilations of all-time bests in their respective sports but all-time bests at quickening the pulse and evoking a visceral response from those fortunate enough to have witnessed their artistry.
As a sometime member of the human race, Couch Slouch would like to extend an apology on behalf of other humans to fellow human Calvin Borel.
Late Saturday afternoon, Calvin Borel will chase an odd piece of history: He will try to become first jockey in history to win horse racing's three Triple Crown races on two different horses. His pursuit creates an odd slice of sideways hype for a race that truly needs a horse -- not a human -- to attract mainstream attention.
Preakness Stakes favorite Rachel Alexandra lived up to her billing Saturday, thundering past an all-male field of competitors and becoming the first filly to win the Triple-Crown's second jewel since 1924.
BALTIMORE -- At shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday, wine magnate Jess Jackson conducted a media teleconference in advance of Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course. Jackson, 79, had purchased gifted 3-year-old filly Rachel Alexandra a week earlier and will run her in the Preakness against 12 colts, including unlikely Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.
An air-supported roof over the Dallas Cowboys' practice field collapsed during a heavy thunderstorm Saturday afternoon, leaving 12 people injured, authorities said.
This article appears in the May 11, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine.
Unlikely Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird is on the cover of SI this week. He's the first horse on the cover since Smarty Jones after winning the Derby in '04. (Although to be fair, this week's photo has to be considered as much homage to fearless jockey Calvin Borel as to the 50-1 gelding he's riding.)
From the Civil War to the taming of the West to the Kentucky Derby, horses have played an essential role in the forging of American history, and the farrier has been there for every stride.
In 2007 I wrote a book called Fanatic: 10 Things All Sports Fans Should Do Before They Die, which chronicled my year-long odyssey to a roster of iconic sporting events. The list -- Super Bowl, Daytona 500, Masters, Final Four, Kentucky Derby, Wimbledon, day game at Wrigley, Ohio State-Michigan, Lambeau in December and Opening Day at Fenway -- was not so much an attempt to identify the greatest events, but to see first hand the ones I had always wanted to check out but for one reason or another had never made it to.
These lists are not mere compilations of all-time bests in their respective sports but all-time bests at quickening the pulse and evoking a visceral response from those fortunate enough to have witnessed their artistry.
As a sometime member of the human race, Couch Slouch would like to extend an apology on behalf of other humans to fellow human Calvin Borel.
Late Saturday afternoon, Calvin Borel will chase an odd piece of history: He will try to become first jockey in history to win horse racing's three Triple Crown races on two different horses. His pursuit creates an odd slice of sideways hype for a race that truly needs a horse -- not a human -- to attract mainstream attention.
Preakness Stakes favorite Rachel Alexandra lived up to her billing Saturday, thundering past an all-male field of competitors and becoming the first filly to win the Triple-Crown's second jewel since 1924.
BALTIMORE -- At shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday, wine magnate Jess Jackson conducted a media teleconference in advance of Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course. Jackson, 79, had purchased gifted 3-year-old filly Rachel Alexandra a week earlier and will run her in the Preakness against 12 colts, including unlikely Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.
An air-supported roof over the Dallas Cowboys' practice field collapsed during a heavy thunderstorm Saturday afternoon, leaving 12 people injured, authorities said.
This article appears in the May 11, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine.
Unlikely Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird is on the cover of SI this week. He's the first horse on the cover since Smarty Jones after winning the Derby in '04. (Although to be fair, this week's photo has to be considered as much homage to fearless jockey Calvin Borel as to the 50-1 gelding he's riding.)
INDIANAPOLIS -- When Kyle Busch left Richmond International Raceway after last year's spring race, he needed extra security after spinning out race-leader and NASCAR hero Dale Earnhardt, Jr. late in the contest. Busch had become Public Enemy No. 1 in NASCAR.
I am sitting in front of my desktop computer -- damn the technology! -- staring at a blank screen. I work for a dying industry and today I am struggling to write about a dying industry.
Here are my five quick thoughts from an improbable, electrifying Kentucky Derby.
Longshot thoroughbred Mine That Bird plowed down a muddy track at Churchill Downs to win the 135th Kentucky Derby on Saturday by several lengths.
Even though the morning line for Saturday's Kentucky Derby suggests that this year's Run for the Roses is a four-horse race (top top four choices are 5-1 or better, and no one else is lower than 15-1), the reality is that a case can be made for perhaps a dozen entrants donning the blanket of roses around 6:30 p.m. Saturday. But playing a 12-horse exacta box is a bit cost prohibitive, especially in these lean times, so let's attempt to narrow the field using our observations from the Derby preps, an examination of the past performances, reports from the morning workouts in Louisville and some projection on how the race may play out.
LOUISVILLE -- They feel neglected. The trainers, the owners, the jockeys. The players in Saturday's 135th running of the Kentucky Derby are part of one of the great sports spectacles in America, and yet this year the stage feels a little smaller. The spotlight leading to the race feels a little dimmer.
This story appears in the April 20, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated.
If you sat down and wrote a list of the biggest events in sports, chances are the NCAA men's basketball tournament would be at the top. In fact, in terms of annual sporting events in this country, the tournament might only take a back seat to the Super Bowl.
Stump, a 10-year-old Sussex spaniel, is named the Kennel Club's Best in Show
The Kentucky Derby could have a more international feel next year. Churchill Downs has partnered with Kempton Park Racecourse in England to create the $150,000 Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes
It is the first Saturday in May, 2002; my first Kentucky Derby as Sports Illustrated's horse racing writer, following the deep footprints of my former SI colleague, Bill Nack. Ninety minutes prior to the race, SI reporter Mark Beech and I walk to around the clubhouse turn at the Downs to access the barn area, in order to later make the same walk in reverse to the saddling paddock with the horses and their connections. It is a something of a ritual, albeit a challenging one, in deep sand with dress shoes.
Buckingham Palace accountants insisted Friday that the cost of maintaining Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family is a bargain for taxpayers
Trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. still blames Kent Desormeaux for Big Brown's stunning last-place finish in the Belmont Stakes, but he wouldn't object to the jockey riding the horse in his next race
In gathering darkness last Saturday at Belmont Park, trainer Nick Zito watched as horses walked on a dirt path inside his backstretch barn, cooling themselves after racing in punishing 90° heat. A tall, brown colt walked slowly past on a groom's lead, dropping and then raising his head with each weary step. "Hey, Da' Tara," said Zito, calling the horse's name in a raspy growl. Then he turned to a small group of visitors. "Right there," said Zito, nodding toward the horse. "That's the winner."
Rick Dutrow is more than happy to explain that Saturday's Belmont Stakes is not a rider's race. He is, in fact, more than happy to explain that any race in which Big Brown is a participant is not a rider's race. Or a trainer's race. Or an owner's race.
Triple Crown contender Big Brown has a slight crack to his left front hoof
Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Churchill Downs are separated by just 125 miles of southern Indiana countryside and the Ohio River. That's 50 laps around the Speedway, twice as many around Churchill. But the expansive motor racing cathedral, with its signature yard of bricks, and the stately horse racing track, defined by its dignified twin spires now dwarfed by grotesque modernization, are undeniably linked. Many of their most cherished traditions seem rooted in the same values. And each became the standard by which all who compete in their respective sports are judged.
There was something very different about this colt. He was pulled from his mother's womb in the broodmare barn at Monticule Farm in central Kentucky on the afternoon of April 10, 2005, deep bay in color but with a strange white dot at the top of his left front leg, near his rib cage. It was perhaps the size of a quarter, and none of the three people in the stall at the time of his birth had ever seen such a marking on a horse of his coloring. "What the devil is that?" said Monticule owner Gary Knapp. The horse's handlers, many of whom were Mexican, nicknamed him Punto Blanco, Spanish for "white dot."
BALTIMORE -- There was a sustained roar, equal parts exultation and relief, as Big Brown pulled away from his rivals in the Preakness at Pimlico on Saturday. Here was validation, not just for a colt who looks to be by far the best of his generation -- who now heads to the Belmont with a real chance to win the first Triple Crown in 30 years -- but also for a venerable sport that has spent the last two weeks defending itself against charges of animal cruelty. Big Brown's 5 ¼-length win did nothing to erase the horrible memory of the death of the filly Eight Bells in the Kentucky Derby, but by its very dominance, it did serve as a shining example of why the game is still played.
For thoroughbreds in this U.S. Caribbean territory, being fast enough to win, place or show is a matter of life and death
BALTIMORE -- Big Brown arrived Wednesday evening at Pimlico Race Track for Saturday's Preakness. He was preceded onto the grounds of the old track by two of his business partners: In front of his horse trailer a brown UPS delivery truck of the variety that is probably driving up your street right now, and behind it a UPS cab for pulling an 18-wheeled truck. I didn't see the guy with the squeaky grease pencil in the UPS whiteboard commercials, but I'm sure he'll be here soon.
They will run another major horse race on Saturday: The 133rd Preakness in Baltimore. This will come 14 days after Eight Belles' awful breakdown more than quarter mile past the finish line of the Kentucky Derby. There have been hundreds of races run since the Derby, at tracks across the nation, but in the vast majority of cases, only a few people were watching. Millions will be watching Saturday.
One of my favorite old sports-page words was "crafty." It meant, of course, some player, usually what we also always called a "veteran," who got by on his wits. Well, I can't remember the last time I heard anybody in sports described as "crafty.
For journalists, Kentucky Derby chaos begins in earnest when the race ends. We watch the race from some less-than-ideal location (we are given sensational viewing spots on the balcony at the front of the press box, but it is nearly impossible to report quickly after the race from that perch, because of the crush of humanity between the sixth-floor balcony and racetrack-level winner's circle). Then we scramble to find quick and genuine reaction, before time dulls emotions.
Here was a patch of racetrack earth where destinies collided last Saturday in the late-afternoon sunshine. Thoroughbred trainer Rick Dutrow ran awkwardly through sandy soil near the Churchill Downs finish line en route to an infield winner's circle celebration for Big Brown, the brilliant 3-year-old colt that Dutrow saddled for an epic victory in the 134th Kentucky Derby. Walter Blum, one of Dutrow's exercise riders and a longtime friend, threw an arm across Dutrow's meaty shoulders and yelled in his left ear, "You did it, man! You won the Kentucky Derby! The horse is a freak! He's a freak!" Dutrow met Blum's eyes and cackled wildly, a man locked in the sweetest of dreams.
Once again, tragedy mars the Triple Crown. But Big Brown could lift the cloud
Violent storms rolling across the nation's midsection unleashed tornadoes, high winds and hail in four states and killed at least seven in Arkansas on Friday
I was born and raised in Kentucky, a background that usually doesn't offer much in the way of conversation fodder.
THE RACE -- The 134th Kentucky Derby, the most storied and important horse race in the world. It's also, by consensus, the most difficult to win.
Houston Texans patriarch Bob McNair is everything an owner of a professional sports team should be: involved without being meddlesome, supportive without being overbearing. He is self-made, smart and enlightened. The next time he is overcome by ego will be the first.
The story of the 134th Kentucky Derby begins and ends with Big Brown. Not the handicapping story, the story story.
To understand how much synthetic surfaces have changed thoroughbred racing -- and inverted the esoteric calculus of handicapping -- one need look no further than Colonel John. In years past the big bay colt from California would probably have been a clear favorite to win the Kentucky Derby.
Early Friday morning I drove through Gate 5 on the Churchill Downs backstretch. I motored along, without stopping once, through a maze of horse barns and small auxiliary buildings until I pulled into a parking spot alongside the massive racetrack, across the infield from the twin spires. One car was parked next to mine. Trainer Nick Zito, whom I had arranged to meet at the track, stood nearby, talking with an acquaintance. Not another person was in sight. Had I brought my crossbow, I could have fired arrows in four directions and not harmed a soul.
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