JC / Railbird - Painful Perfection

Painful Perfection

Brian Zipse asks why Blind Luck gets a pass that Rachel Alexandra didn’t:

I understand that Rachel was held to a higher standard, as the reigning Horse of the Year, but to what end? Have we become so expecting of perfection of our stars, that they simply can not live up to them. Do we not allow ourselves to fully enjoy the special ones, because of these expectations?

Simply, yes.

There’s something about repeated brilliance that inspires a fear of loss (a fear not specific to racing). It’s sentimental. We can’t stand to lose the magic.

Posted by JC in Racing on 01/26/2011 @ 7:49 am / Tagged Blind Luck, Distaffers, Fans, Perfection, Psychology, Rachel Alexandra, Sports / Follow @railbird on Twitter

2 Comments

A commenter over at HRN said “I hate to see what happens when Uncle Mo loses” (or something to that effect). Indeed.

Posted by dana on January 26, 2011 @ 12:57 pm

I was thinking about this regarding Zenyatta. If the Breeders’ Cup Classic hadn’t officially been her last start, how might the post-race stories have read? Pleas for retirement would have been rife. But it was known that that was the last we’d see of her on track, so the narrative was that her only loss threw her previous perfection into relief, made her greater. What was that, but a desire to keep believing?

Posted by Jessica on January 26, 2011 @ 2:19 pm

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