Triumph and Tragedy

Friends,

Per usual in the sports world, yesterday, we had the predictable and the unpredictable. Big Brown (aka the UPS horse ;-), the favorite to win the Kentucky Derby, did so in mighty fashion...winning by five lengths, going away. No horse with only three starts (or less) had won the "big race" since 1915 -- pretty amazing. Equally remarkable is that only one (maybe two)other horse(s) had won from the 20 spot, which is the gate furthest out. Most owners/trainers prefer somewhere between the 3 and 5 slot, so 20 would be a big disadvantage (technically), but not for Big Brown. He had a clean trip and it worked out wonderfully for him and jockey Kent Desormeaux (whom I am glad won -- a likeable fellow). The sad portion of the day was when the second place horse, the filly Eight Belles, broke down after the race, having fractured both front ankles and had to be put down. (It was reminiscent of the filly Ruffian having to be put down during her match race with Foolish Pleasure in 1975). This was the first time that this has happened in the 130+ years of the Kentucky Derby. It is tragic that a couple of prominent horses have died in the past three years (the other being Barbaro in 2006), but the statistics (1.5 deaths out of every 1000) bear out that horse racing is no more dangerous than at any other time during the past 40 years. Although, it was apparent that the horse's break down did not occur until well after the race was over, as on too many other occasions where there is no place for radical animal rights activists, they are going after the kid jockey saying that "this was all his fault," when he correctly did everything that he could to slow the horse down.

Dale Jr. has a 70 + race winless streak...and it looked like he was going to end that drought last night with less than ten laps to go -- then he a Kyle Busch collided (most would say Busch wrecked him) and the opportunity for victory was over for him (and for Busch for that matter). You could even hear the gasp and grumbling of the fans on the toob at such an incredibly unpopular happening, which prompted the announcers to say..."hope that Kyle has a police escort to get him out of town." Indeed.

I do not know very many Track & Field followers (are there really still any(?) -- about as popular as cycling with all the performance enhancing drugs) who would not say that disgraced track star, Marion Jones, has not received what she deserved, unfortunately. I, for one, feel a limited sympathy for her...just such a sad thing for her --I mean, who didn't love Marion Jones as a track star? -- and for the sport. She has been stripped of all of her medals from past Olympic competion and now the IOC is asking for her relay teammates to return their medals. I do not think this should be (in my opinion)...punish Marion, but do not rob her teammates of their hard earned hardware (unless they too have cheated, but I do not believe that there has been evidence that any of the others have done so). This should be a situation where grace is in order...and I hope that wiser heads will prevail.

How 'bout a little happier news :-) -- congratulations to Ty, Lori and Ian for beating "the three amigos" in b-ball (a total fluke ;-). However, Joey will never let us live it down :-( ha ha.
Blessings,

Don