Wednesday Notes
From a Brown Daily Herald profile of Jaimy Gordon, author of “Lord of Misrule,” the racetrack novel awarded the 2010 National Book Award for fiction:
Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly described members of Jaimy Gordon’s MA’72 DA’75 family as “horse riders.” In fact, Gordon said her relatives were “horseplayers.” The Herald regrets the error.
Love that “horseplayers” also warrants a definition within the article.
Take the correction above as a sign that Betfair has its work cut out for it educating the younger set in the US market? A Bloomberg article published today on how the British-based company is gearing up for exchange wagering in California through its American foothold, TVG, notes the generational divide when it comes to horseplayers in the states versus exchange bettors elsewhere: “About 80 percent of TVG’s customer base is over the age of 50, while 80 percent of Betfair’s users are under 50.” As CEO David Yu has acknowledged, “A lot of Americans don’t realise they can bet online legally through something like TVG,” or that the legal something is horse racing …
In an attempt to attract more international wagering, starting gate numbers could be reversed so that stall one is nearest the inside fence at right-handed British tracks, reports the Guardian. There is a potential downside: “It could, however, lead to initial confusion among domestic punters long used to the status quo, particularly with regard to the more renowned draw biases.” Sharp bettors, at home or abroad, will see that as an upside.
Stat for Thought
Jeremy Plonk on the Derby-Classic connection:
There has never been a Breeders’ Cup Classic run at Churchill Downs that didn’t have at least one Kentucky Derby alumni finish in the superfacta …
Don’t be so quick to dismiss Paddy O’Prado?
Notes on “Secretariat”
In a morning matinee at a downtown Boston multiplex, I watched “Secretariat” on Saturday, and as Vic Zast wrote last month in his informal review of the film, “I couldn’t wait for it to end.” I knew, going in, to expect schmaltz and historical inaccuracies. I didn’t expect to be bored.
Plenty has been written elsewhere, so I’ll only make a couple observations:
Several reviewers have noted as inaccurate an early scene in which horses are saddled in the barn area, horse laundry and manure pits in the background. I don’t believe that was an error — for a movie about the well-to-do and the well-bred, in which the final, stirring scene ostensibly takes place at one of America’s grandest tracks (and was actually filmed at one of the prettiest), “Secretariat” goes to great lengths to show Penny Chenery and the rest of the characters in rundown or rough settings when they’re on track. Paddocks are of brick and concrete, backstretches lined with tractors and sheds, tunnels dank. The racetrack visuals in “Secretariat,” minus those of the Churchill Downs clubhouse and Kentucky Derby winner’s circle, overwhelmingly create an impression of the track as primarily a working class milieu, bolstering the film’s portrayal of Chenery as a scrappy everywoman.
I’ve been trying to figure out what exactly wasn’t quite right about the racing scenes — other than the gimmicky angles and strange lack of energy — and think it has something to do with the sense of smallness that pervaded the movie. Everything about the story — the low stakes, the settings, even Secretariat — came off as minor and incidental. Nothing was ever truly at risk.
I did appreciate one touch of authenticity. When Lucien Laurin returns to his car after meeting Chenery for the first time, he pulls from his trunk a book and flips to an ad for The Meadow. He’s looking at the “Blood-Horse Gold Anniversary Edition,” published in 1967; the ad appears on page 488.
10/12/10 Addendum: Bill Doolittle nails one thing the movie did well: “The movie isn’t just true to the tale, it’s true to the turf, getting just right the special dynamic that exists between the people of horse racing — the trainers and owners and jockeys and fans — and the horses.”
10/15/10 Addendum: But Steve Davidowitz expresses more of my feeling re: the movie, days after viewing: “At the bottom line, those of us who love racing for the uniqueness of its champion horses and for its beautiful venues and for the sheer pleasure of playing the best game man has ever invented, will have to swallow down hard to go with the flow of this distorted, over hyped waste of a great cinematic opportunity.”
Zippy Knows the Deal
From a Times-Union story on 0-for-100 Zippy Chippy:
The Peppers fashioned a winner’s circle out of flowers and bales of straw, and posted a sign next to it that read: Cabin Creek Winner’s Circle.
They thought it’d be fun to have Monserrate parade Zippy Chippy into the winner’s circle and let people take all the pictures that the horse missed out on during his racing career. The only one who didn’t like the idea was Zippy Chippy. He kicked the sign over.
I’m reminded of the close of Joe Palmer’s “Common Folks,” on recently retired Stymie parading at Jamaica in 1949 (Stymie and Zippy Chippy being about as far apart in career accomplishments as racehorses can be):
As he stood for the last time, before the stands, people around the winner’s enclosure were shouting … “Bring him in here, for just for one more time.”
The groom didn’t obey, and probably was right. Stymie never got in a winner’s circle without working for it. It was no time to begin.
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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