Two Unrelated Things
An article by Paul Daley in today’s Lowell Sun on Mom’s Command, one of this year’s Hall of Fame nominees in the contemporary female category, has sparked remembrances of the mare over on the Derby List, including this funny story from Sal Carcia:
Mom’s Command was coming off a race where we thought Abby had given the horse a mediocre ride. We were waiting for the horse to come back. It was a Saturday and we were kind of having a lazy day in betting. We were upstairs in the grandstands casually sitting around waiting for the next betting opportunity. My buddy was reading the DRF and suddenly to his dismay he noticed that Mom’s Command was entered in a Stakes race in Maryland. For some reason, we couldn’t get a bet in. It was either too late or Suffolk was not simulcasting the race. I asked him about the rider. He said “Oh, no! Abby’s off and Greg McCarron’s on.” This caused us even more aggravation. Our only hope was that Mom’s Command would be bet heavily and end up at a low price. Well, next day we learned in the Sunday morning papers that she paid around $30.
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Terry Teachout, on his excellent arts blog About Last Night, posted a great quote from Walter Matthau on the subject of gambling:
“I think the reason gamblers habitually gamble is to lose. Because they know they have to lose, it’s the law of averages. I’m not talking about bookies or gentlemen gamblers. I’m talking about the compulsive, neurotic gambler. Pain is what he’s searching for. The emotion of pain. It’s much greater than the emotion of pleasure. Bigger, larger, stronger. Therefore more interesting.”
Walter Matthau (quoted in Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg, Matthau: A Life)
I’m going to be thinking of this the next time I’m at Suffolk Downs.
