Poor Horsey
Horse racing is a family thing for us McKenzies. From Chris and Donivan's near death experience, to dad not putting his two bucks on the horse I picked -- like he said he would --its just something we used to do pretty regularly. Oh, that mess up by dad cost us a good $350. Yo Daddy. I'll never forget it. Although, part of me believes that dad just said he didn't bet and cashed in on my good fortune. :)
Anyway, the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and the Belmont are the only horse races I make time to watch. Same goes with the Indy 500. They're just big enough events that I make a point to at least check out. Its just something my family did growing up. And until the past 3-5 years of watching Nascar consistently, we always made a point to watch the Daytona 500. So, I watched the Preakness and I saw that something was wrong with the horse before the announcers did, and it just made me feel for the poor horse. I mean, yeah, it's just an animal, and I wasn't in tears like the crowd was, but it did break my heart a little. I'd really like to see a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime, and seeing a Kentucky Derby live is on my list of things to do before I die.
On another note, I was pulled out of retirement to play softball with a group of friends from my old waiting tables gig. I'm the best player on the team, which isn't saying much considering I haven't done anything baseball/softball related in over three years. Needless to say, we got our asses kicked in both games, and I was running ragged trying to do all I could. I'll be sunburnt and sore tomorrow (more than I already am). Either I'm not active enough, or I'm getting to old. :-)
That's all I got for now. One more full week of work, then my vacation time hits. Can't wait.
posted by Patrick at 11:18 PM
3 Comments:
Like I told you on the phone, that was one of the saddest sporting moments I've ever witnessed, and I've witnessed quite a few "agonies of defeats" in my day. I didn't cry, but I certainly felt like I could have for a few minutes there.
When the race started (for real... not the weird false start), you look to see how the field breaks and how they settle in, and it had just gotten to that point -- the point where you see where the pack is and you sit back and watch idly until the backstretch. It was at just that point, when I was literally starting to sit back in my chair, that the first signs of trouble came. First Barbaro started to lag back from the decent field position he had. "Whoa...not good, Barbaro" I said. And then... pull up. The announcer all but shouts "Barbaro's pulling up! Barbaro's pulling up!" The noise from the crowd (even the drunken infield) collapses into frightened silence. The jockey jumping off and using his tiny body to try to balance the horse off the bad leg. Awful, awful, awful. And then we have to watch the rest of the race, which is almost meaningless at this point... the favorite had fallen.
I am very glad, though, that they're trying to save him and that his early recovery is going well. When it first happened, and they showed the replays, I was afraid they'd put him down on the spot... I think I probably really would have cried then...
I just read back over my post and I'm realizing that I changed tense half a dozen times in that middle paragraph... my apologies if it's confusing... it's past midnight here. Leave me be. 8^)
Enough with the horsey already. Even I have updated my blog...
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