Lists
The Must-Reads, 2010
It’s no exaggeration to say that every year I bookmark, tweet, or link here to hundreds of horse racing features, columns, and blog posts — stories and opinions that catch my attention for a turn of phrase, the quality of storytelling, the depth of research, an unusual argument, or a striking insight. A few each year — like the 10 pieces below — are especially memorable.
The Making of ‘Legends’ (Pat Forde/ESPN)
“The present is another matter. The present stings a bit. The present is Kentucky Derby week, and it offers vivid evidence of how brutally hard it is even for learned horsemen with a lot of money to win a Derby — or to simply reach the starting gate.”
The Linemakers (John Scheinman/Pimlico)
“It is no secret the man gambles with gusto, a word that derives from the Latin gustus, or tasting. Carulli is all appetite and, like the bear he resembles, doesn’t like to be disturbed while concentrating.”
The Best Broodmare of All Time? (Alicia Wincze/Lexington Herald-Leader)
“Though Hasili was a stakes winner on the track and had a solid pedigree in her corner, nothing in her form could have indicated the impact she would have on the sport once she entered the breeding shed.”
What Makes the Great Ones Great? (Jay Hovdey/DRF)
“No question, in terms of personality type, the great ones appear to be happy in their work.”
Why We Love Secretariat (Meghan O’Rourke/Slate)
“In the moment when he pulls away from Sham, his brilliant archrival (who would’ve been a champion in any other year), we have the sense of an animal exceeding the boundaries of the category of animal.”
Forlorn Filly Comes from Nowhere (Bill Finley/NY Times)
“A few days after he bought a modestly bred horse from a friend named Don Hunt, Tim Snyder took a moment to reflect. He had no money, no horse trailer to get his new acquisition to where he needed to go and a filly that had been rejected by nearly everyone else who had come in contact with her. The horse had a clubfoot, a bad shoulder, a reputation for being slow and was blind in one eye, reason enough for Snyder to second-guess what he had just done.”
Who Really Invented Race Charts? (Kevin Martin/Colin’s Ghost)
“Whatever the case might be, it was Brunell who had the foresight to put race charts and later past performances into a daily publication dedicated to racing. While the above puts his role as ‘originator’ in doubt, no one can deny that he popularized the tools that all horseplayers have been dependent on for more than a century.” [See also, Martin’s follow-up post.]
Rachel’s Place in History (Gary West/West Points)
“Most of us had never seen anything like Rachel Alexandra, and for having seen her, I’m grateful.”
Frankel’s Rise No Romantic Dream (Chris McGrath/Independent)
“Despite the present, witless tendency to treat them as characters in search of an author, men such as Frankie Dettori and Henry Cecil could never be adequately prefigured by a script.”
A Vote for Horse Racing (Claire Novak/ESPN)
“For now, suffice it to say it is the opinion here that a vote for Zenyatta is, simply put, a vote for horse racing. To recognize this kind of runner as vital to the sport’s survival is common sense, not emotional gibberish as some would choose to believe.”
What’s missing? Add your must-reads from the year past in the comments …
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 pieces that shouldn’t be missed:
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?â€
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.
Racing ’09, ’00s in Review: The List of Lists
Final update 1/1/10.
The Year in Review
Final 2009 Standings/Money Leaders (Paulick Report)
The Grade 1 Winners of 2009 (Steven Crist)
2009 Turf Awards (Brisnet) [Excellent review of turf runners]
Beyond Rachel and Zenyatta (Fillies First)
A Look Back at 2009: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 (Jennie Rees)
Two Special Ladies Shared the Limelight (Jay Privman)
Best Performances of 2009 (Jon White)
2009: A to Z (Claire Novak)
A Year in Images (Hoof Blog)
An Academic Look at Racing in 2009 (Brock Talk)
2009 Not So Good for Business (Paul Moran)
Looking Back at 2009 (Horses and the Law)
The Year in Review (Superfecta)
A Memorable Year at the Race Track (Duke Hunt)
Praying for Memory Loss (Not to the Swift)
Top Five Races of 2009 (They Are Off)
Racing Memories, 2009 (Brooklyn Backstretch)
Photo of the Year (Michigan-Bred Claimer)
What a Year: Part 1, Part 2 (Michael Veitch)
Highlights from the Prairie (Quinella Queen)
The Year in Review (Jeremy Ponk)
The Year That Was (Paulick Report)
Readers Choose Zenyatta as Best of ’09 (Thoroughbred Times)
HANA 2009 Year in Review (Horseplayers Association)
Top 10 Newsmakers of the Year (Thoroughbred Times)
The Deciders: The Best Decisions of 2009 (Jay Hovdey)
My Moments of the Year (Claire Novak)
Top 10 Stakes Races of the Year (Brendan O’Meara)
Zenyatta’s Classic an NTRA Moment of the Year Cinch (John Pricci)
Ten Best NY Races: #10, #9, #8, #7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1 (Nick Tammaro)
Play of the Day Year in Review (Power Cap)
They’re Off: 2009 Offy Awards (Steve Haskin, Lenny Shulman)
A Weak 2009 Derby Field (Jon White)
The Best of a Big Year (John Asher)
The Decade in Review
The Best of the 2000s (Bob Ehalt)
The Best of the Decade, from A to Zenyatta (Art Wilson)
Horse Racing in the Noughties (Greg Wood)
Best of the Decade, Best Non-Champs (Steven Crist)
Best and Worst of the Decade (Dan Illman)
The Top Five of the Top 10s (Vic Zast)
Memorable Horses of the Decade (Nick Kling)
Horses of the Decade: Part 1, Part 2 (Gowanus Baseball)
A Troubling Decade (Gary West)
Horses of the Decade (Farewell to Kings)
Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra Cap Quite a Run (Joe Drape)
Best of the Decade: A Series (Steve Haskin)
Innovations of the Decade: #5, #4, #3, #2, #1 (r2collective)
Dubai Moments of the Decade: #10-#6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1 (Pat Cummings)
The Best Flat Races of the Decade (Chris Cook)
Racing’s Cruel Decade (Nick Kling)
The Decade in Racing (Sports Illustrated)
2000s Generous to Delaware Racing (Jack Ireland)
Most Influential Horses of the Decade (Jeremy Plonk)
Deck the Halls with the Passing Decade (Bill Christine)
Top 10 Racehorses I Shot this Decade (Sarah K. Andrew)
The Best of the Decade (Zipse at the Track)
Mentions of Racing in General/Sports Year/Decade Lists
Five Memorable Moments in Sports: Mine That Bird (The National)
LA Year in Review: #6 Zenyatta (Daily News)
2009 Top Sports Stories: #3 Rachel Alexandra (Times-Union)
Top 10 Sports Stories of the Decade: Barbaro, ‘Rachel’ (Baltimore Sun)
AP Female Athlete of the Year: #2 Zenyatta (Associated Press)
Decade’s Top Sports Stories: Funny Cide, ‘Rachel’ (Mark McGuire)
Ten Best Stories of 2009: Rachel Alexandra (Don Hunsberger)
Decade Retrospective: 2007: Barbaro (Deadspin)
Top 10 Sports Moments of 2009: #5 Rachel Alexandra (Time)
Top Sports Breakouts Since 2000: Funny Cide (USA Today)
The Year Ahead, Predictions and Advice
Salutations for 2010 (Horse Racing Business)
Things We Don’t Need to See in 2010 (Jay Cronley)
Wishes for the Decade Ahead (Alex Waldrop)
Eleven Things I Want to See in 2010 (HANA)
Racing Wish List, 2010 (TrackMaster)
Dos and Don’ts for Racing in 2010 (Alicia Wincze)
Notes for 2009-04-13
– Few changes to the top 10 this week, with all adjustments in the second tier. Arkansas Derby winner Papa Clem, who’s been bumping around the lower third since February, moves to #6, replacing runner-up Old Fashioned, now off the Derby trail and likely done with racing due to a slab fracture of the knee. General Quarters appears at #8 following his win in the Blue Grass, making him the second to come out of the Tampa Bay Derby and take a stakes. I had trouble coming up with a tenth prospect, narrowing the possibles down to Chocolate Candy, Musket Man, and West Side Bernie, all on the cusp. Although Twitterverse sentiment was 4-to-1 for ‘Candy, I settled on Musket Man, who followed up on his Tampa win with another in last week’s Illinois Derby.
Top 10 for 4/14/09 PDI: 1. I Want Revenge 2. Quality Road 3. Pioneerof the Nile 4. Desert Party 5. Friesan Fire 6. Papa Clem 7. Dunkirk 8. General Quarters 9. Regal Ransom 10. Musket Man
– Chocolate Candy worked yesterday morning with new rider Mike Smith up, going five furlongs handily in :59.20 at Santa Anita. “I was happy with the work, said trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. Of course he was. Trainers are almost never quoted as anything but thrilled with their charges, especially three weeks before the biggest 3-year-old race of the year. The colt does look pretty good in this video of his Sunday move, though.
Dunkirk and Quality Road also worked over the weekend, with Dunkirk breezing four furlongs in :49.06 at Palm Meadows, and Quality Road doing the same in :48 at Belmont Park. He then galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.85 (according to DRF; Belmont clockers credited Quality’ with a five furlong breeze in 1:02.19). NYRA posted a short video of the work, showing the Jimmy Jerkens-trained colt going fine, apparently untroubled by the quarter crack found earlier in the week.
On the distaff side, watch mail brought notice that Music Note, third in her final 2008 start, the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Classic, is back in training. The 4-year-old filly breezed three furlongs in :37.40 at Keeneland on Saturday. No news yet on where she might debut this year. Possibly Belmont, in a race such as the June 13 G1 Ogden Phipps Handicap?
– It might be too early to start speculating on possible Derby pace scenarios, but with Old Fashioned and The Pamplemousse out, who goes to the front? There’s not a lot of early speed among the remaining probables.
– BSFs: 99 101 (upgraded) for Papa Clem, 95 for General Quarters.
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