On Bellyaching
I’ve been accused of late, in emails and comments, of not being properly enthusiastic about Big Brown, so let me give the horse his due: Big Brown is a phenomenal talent, a freak, and he would be coming out of any barn. He’s dominated every start, he’s shown that he can rate or lead, that he can break from the inside or the outside. He accelerates effortlessly, and he displays qualities exhibited by past great racehorses — he makes every race look like his own and every horse he beats look second-rate.
I hope he wins the Triple Crown. It’s been 30 years; racing fans deserve a superstar.
Apparently, that’s all I’m supposed to say. Anything else is “bellyaching.”
You know, over the past two weeks, we’ve heard endlessly that racing is in crisis, that racing must change, that the sport has to deal with its drug problem and breed more durable horses.
Last Saturday, both ESPN and NBC dedicated panels to discussing these and other issues and everyone involved earnestly agreed to the necessity of reform.
Not 10 minutes after the NBC segment wrapped, Bob Costas was announcing a stud deal for lightly-raced Big Brown.
A few minutes later, NTRA president Alex Waldrop appeared and, among other things, promised that racing would be steroids free by 2009, without even giving a nod to the fact that the Preakness favorite — and more than likely, half the field — was on steroids as a matter of course.
And yet all that, as well as trainer Rick Dutrow’s lengthy record and questionable character, should be put aside.
Well, I’m not interested in doing that. Big Brown, on the verge of a historic achievement, embodies racing’s rot. I watch his races and feel the transcendence that great horses offer — I really meant it when I said he’s phenomenal — but then the disenchantment comes on.
To stop talking now about Dutrow’s career and methods, or IEAH’s rush to stud and its business plan and what it all means, is to give the racing establishment a pass on the problems corroding our game.
Racing is compromised, its future success threatened, and to refuse to grapple with the contradictions and questions that surround Big Brown is to willingly put on blinkers.
But I guess desperately wanting to celebrate a Triple Crown winner nullifies any claims integrity or intellectual honesty make on our consciences. As David Brooks wrote of the unsavory Melmotte, “Dishonesty becomes acceptable so long as it contributes to success.”
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