Racing’s Big Night
It’s a bit of whirlwind trip, but I made it to Beverly Hills for tonight’s Eclipse Awards ceremony. After following Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta this year, and having had the good fortune to be at both of their emphatic final 2009 races, it seemed foolish not to head to California — especially when a non-stop plane ticket could be had for a small price — to hear which super distaffer would win Horse of the Year.
I’ll be doing the live blog thing (and occasionally tweeting) throughout the evening on Raceday 360 beginning around 4:00 PM PT/7:00 PM ET. Since TVG is airing the awards show, and online sources for updates on who-won-what abound, breaking news won’t be my focus. Instead, it’ll be glimpses of what’s happening backstage, literally and otherwise.
Reading into Rankings
I’ll leave it to others to debate whether it’s sexist or even right that Zenyatta finished second to tennis star Serena Williams in the Associated Press’ Female Athlete of the Year poll and instead merely note that the mare has been running second in quite a few rankings of late, such as the decade-in-review pieces compiled by Tim Layden for Sports Illustrated and Joe Drape for the New York Times, or first, as in the annual Thoroughbred Times readers’ poll. Is this the recency effect, as Ed DeRosa suggests, or are these considered placings, all lengths ahead of Rachel Alexandra, harbingers of how the Horse of the Year vote will tally? I’m beginning to suspect an upset on January 18.
The Must-Reads, 2009
The year almost past was rich in surprises and storylines, making 2009 not only a superb year in racing, but a good year in turf writing, a reminder that although the industry may be struggling and there may be fewer correspondents on the beat, greatness remains as possible on track as keen reporting does in print (even if only online). Amid the abundance of the last 12 months, here are 10 stories, columns, and blog posts that stand out:
Balance’s Little Sister (Steve Andersen/DRF Inside Post)
“Her career will end soon. She may not start again. Shirreffs knows that.”
Death of a Horseman (Bill Christine/Horserace Insider)
“You got it wrong … I’ve never fired Frankel. He’s always firing me. We don’t call him George Steinbrenner for nothing.”
Rubin Recalls Her Tough Ride to the Finish Line (Bill Finley/New York Times)
“I think they felt there would be a stigma if a woman rode, that if a woman could ride, how hard could it possibly be?”
Where Calvin Learned to Ride (Matthew Futterman/Wall Street Journal)
“At the bush tracks in Cajun country where Calvin Borel learned to ride horses for $4 a mount, standards weren’t much higher than the pay.” [A fine complement last spring to Maryjean Wall's reminiscence, "Calvin Borel: The Early Years," which appeared on May 15 and is unfortunately no longer online. "Long before Borel became the go-to jockey of this Triple Crown season, I came across him quite by happenstance at the bush races in Louisiana. He was not yet a licensed jockey. He was 14 years old."]
On Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra, and Memory (Lisa Grimm/Superfecta)
“… our collective memory will do them a better sort of justice …”
A Glorious Reminder (Paul Hayward/Guardian)
“This was not a bloodstock deal, a betting coup or a prize-money grab. It was flesh and blood and beauty.”
Horse Slaughter: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (Matt Hegarty/Daily Racing Form)
“On the issue of horse slaughter, few people take the middle ground …”
High Noon for the Gunslingers (Chris McGrath/The Independent)
“Sheikh Mohammed must have looked at these deadpan men, up from the banks of the Rio Grande, and pondered his own, unrequited craving for this prize. Who are those guys?”
Old School (Claire Novak/ESPN)
“The legend schools the rookie on a cloudy day at Churchill Downs.”
The Final Furlong (Seth Wickersham/ESPN Magazine)
“She took off on foot, walking the track with her medical tool kit, squinting through the mist until she saw a shadowy figure, already a ghost …”
Do you have a favorite piece of turf writing from 2009 not included above? Please share: Leave a comment (and a link, if available) below.
A Well-Deserved Rest
Owner Jess Jackson said on Sunday that it is unlikely Rachel Alexandra will race again this year following her superb Woodward Stakes win:
“She had a campaign since winter, this is the fall. She’s raced more races in two years than most fillies ever run. She’s done things that no fillies have ever done. She deserves a rest.”
After Saturday, who could argue? This campaign needs no embellishing:
I haven’t watched the Woodward replay yet; like Maryjean Wall, I’m still in “a dreamy state” brought on by being at Saratoga to witness such an astounding performance of heart and talent. I’ll surely watch the replay soon (the better to comment on the race and what it means), but for now, I want my memories of Saturday only to be of her in the lead and the crowd rising and roaring as the field streaked down the stretch, as I saw and felt those intense seconds.
9/7/09 Addendum: More from Jackson on the likelihood that Rachel Alexandra will not race again this year: “She needs, I think four or five months off.”
The Fun Is Over
Claire Novak is fed up with Jess Jackson’s coy refusals to announce yet where Rachel Alexandra is starting next. Enough, she writes:
Set a date for a press conference, make up your mind, and make the announcement. That’s what a true sportsman would do.
About
Jessica Chapel lives in Brooklyn, enjoys horse racing, curates Raceday 360. Railbird v1 was a thoroughbred racing blog that ran 2004-2008; Railbird v2 is a broader collection of notes and links, but still (mostly) about the horses. More ›
Elsewhere
Find Jessica on Twitter and Delicious; Raceday 360 on Twitter and Flickr.
Etc.
Links
Search
Projects
Spreadsheets/Data
← Home
Copyright © 2000-2010 by Jessica Chapel. All rights reserved.
Site credits: WordPress / DePo Skinny Theme / Dreamhost.