Random thoughts.... · 18.11.08
- It wasn’t surprising to see a European horse like Muhannak win the Breeders’ Cup Marathon. What may have been surprising was that the second and third place horses — Church Service and Big Booster — are based in the U.S. Also, if you watch the race again, notice how well those two were running at the finish — they were both gaining on the winner. Ironically, if the race had been any longer than the minimum marathon distance — say, 1 5/8 miles rather than 1 1/2 — it is conceivable that a “stamina-challenged” American horse might have become the first BC Marathon champion.
- Harrison Hot Springs is a lovely little resort town about 90 minutes’ drive east of Vancouver. It occured to me recently that, if 50-60 years ago some bright fellow had built a racetrack there — back when racing was still a major sport, in the middle of the optimism and prosperity of the 1950s — British Columbia might now boast the Canadian equivalent of Saratoga. Maybe.
- There are some smart fellows over at ESPN. Jeremy Plonk has come up with a draft plan for a nation-wide racing schedule. Bill Finley suggests that the days of the “iron horse” are not yet gone — at least, not in Australia (“Might the reason that horses run so infrequently have everything to do with the timidity of the modern trainer and little to do with the modern horse?”). And Jay Cronley muses on the importance of a horseplayer’s frame of mind (“So far as I can tell, horse race handicapping and wagering is best used a supplement to reality, not as an escape”).
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What do you think?
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