Tag Archives: sports

The 2011 racing season is coming up fast

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Only five weeks until Derby Day!

The Kentucky Derby is always held the first Saturday in May. The 1 ¼-mile race is the first jewel in the Triple Crown and has been ran at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ken., since 1875.

It suddenly hit me today (while I was thinking I needed to do a new post) that I really need to get cracking on some Derby Day prep. Not only is it five weeks until what I’ll begrudgingly call the most famous race of the year, but it’s five weeks for me to make a lot of decisions.

Will this be the year I finally attend in person?

If not, then I need to find some sort of shindig to commemorate the event here in Fargo. In that case, I better start planning and I better start shopping for the most important part of all: The hat.

I might possibly love the Kentucky Derby for that reason alone: I looooovvveee the hats!

On the other hand, I do look forward to Derby Day for non-fashion-related reasons. It’s sort of the soft opening for our racing season.

Canterbury used to open up for thoroughbreds on the first Saturday of May then the mixed meet (thoroughbreds and American Quarter Horses) opened Memorial Day weekend.  That meant only about a month until Mom moves herself and the horses to the track.  

Although Canterbury opens later in May this year, the mixed meet still begins around Memorial Day weekend. I might not live near the track anymore, but that won’t slow me down in getting there to help.

In the meantime, I’ll get this Derby Day stuff straightened out. So, if anyone has any suggestions for good Derby Day parties in the F-M area, send them my way.

Something random…

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Have you ever heard someone say they had to “go” like a racehorse? Think it was just an odd saying? Well actually, there is some truth and some history behind that. 

Just for fun, I thought I’d point out a few expressions that have seeped into everyday use but originate from horse racing. Some of these are subjective to their actual origins but you’ll get the drift.

The above came about because it’s a healthy habit of a racehorse after a race.  At the track, the first and second place finishers always go to the test barn to be tested for any performance enhancing products. To do that, a urine test is performed. So often grooms, trainers and vets have to act fast to catch their sample for testing.

Getting a leg up: This comes from jockeys and riders who generally need a little help to swing their leg up and over the horse. (This has often been my job race day.)

Dead ringer: A ringer was a horse substituted for another in order to defraud the bookies. It originated around the end of the 19th century.

Vetting: To vet originally referred to the requirement that a horse be checked for health and soundness by a veterinarian before being allowed to race. Now, the general meaning is “to check”.

Dark Horse: Word is, a Tennessean horse trader mixed a race-bred dark colored horse in with workhorses and would enter into local races and win. People began to say “Beware of the dark horse” and it eventually came to be known as one no one knows much about.

Right out of the gate

Chomping at the bit

Down to the wire: Dates back to around 1900 when a wire would literally be stretched across the finish line.

Under the wire

By a nose

Having the inside track: In longer races, having the inside is, of course, the best as it is the shortest route to a finish line.

Homestretch: It refers to the last stretch of a race

Jockey for a position: The jockeys have to find the right place to move up in a race, their main job is to help guide the horse.

Hit your stride: Horses should run on the right “lede” or be using the correct stride to run best.

Neck and neck

Long shot

Across the board: A bet on a horse to win, place or show.

Closer: A horse that runs best in the latter part of the race

Off and running

Upset: The term as it is used now has long been attributed to the only loss by Man o’ War (One of the greatest racehorses ever. Once more popular and beloved than Secretariat.) The only horse to beat Man o’War was called Upset around 1920.

Naming Rights

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I wanted to name my horse after a Bon Jovi song; nothing too obvious, just a subtle reference. It didn’t work out. I probably should have known better.

Picking a name is serious business with horses. In Quarter Horses more so than Thoroughbreds, the name is usually a hybrid of the father and mother (sire and dam). For example, “Eye of a Streaker”’ was our horse. Her father was Special Eye Appeal and her mother was Streakin Queen. The name must be registered with the American Quarter Horse Association and it can’t duplicate another living horse. For betters at the track, the name gives you an idea of what should be expected. You can tell if a horse is out of proven parents by the name alone.

In the case of my horse, I had found something that seemed to work and my mom had agreed to send it into AQHA with his registration pages. Oddly enough, there is a horse out there named Bonjovi already. Even, I think that’s a little nuts.

Still, somehow, the papers came back with nothing even remotely close to my original name choice; his name is Dee Brakes Gone. We call him Brakes. It was convenient my mom had suggested that name. I should have known better. She always has the last say when it comes to names.

Foaling season is coming up and like every year, I doubt I’ll have any input on the names other than getting a phone call from my mom asking me to “Get on your computer and look this up.” Even though she has working Internet and a perfectly good computer I guess it is easier to call me. At least I get to hear what she’s considering.

I know I probably won’t ever win this argument. The Brakes debacle was years ago and my suggestions on names have never been heeded.  The cows I don’t care about and we won’t be getting another dog anytime soon; but, I think I’ve found a battle I can win: I’ve gone in for the cats.

So this fall when they added five kittens to the two at home, I called out naming rights as soon as I could.

Here’s what I came up with: 

Magnum P.I.: A black cat with a much-defined white strip on his upper lip, i.e. a moustache. I considered Tom Selleck, but Magnum now purrs when I ask him what he’s investigating today.

Captain Charlie Crash: He goes by Charlie but originally I named him Crash because he hails from Owatonna, Minn., where a sheriff’s deputy talked me into taking him home after he was abandoned by his mother at an accident site.

Festus & Matt Dillon: Named after Gunsmoke characters for my Dad (who long ago gave up on naming anything around the ranch).

Stubby: He has a stubby tail. It didn’t quite grow. 

Maytag: He likes to “wash” or lick you.

Aurora Borealis or Boris for short: A long-haired gray that has a perfect ring of white hairs illuminating  his chubby little face like a lunar eclipse.  

Amazingly, whether she just feels a little residual guilt over Brakes (or for naming my puppy even after I’d picked out a name) mom is letting me run with it. Of course, my mom chose my name and as likely suspected I was named after a horse person; except, my namesake wasn’t a girl, but her father. Yep, I’m named after a man (and his daughter who was a Wendy Jr.).

I suppose, like Brakes, I should just be thankful it wasn’t an 80s hair band.

What’s in a hat?

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When Carrie Bradshaw said she could live on Vogue because she felt looking at the beautiful clothes just “filled her up more” than food ­– I could relate. And I wasn’t much of a Sex in the City fan. But I do love fashion. So, last year when I saw this fall’s trends would be equestrian inspired, I was ecstatic. It seemed like the latest trends in fashion would be a nice reflection of the different parts of my own life. Plus, my obsession with boots would pay off.

I got to thinking about my style – and at times a lack of. I’m a hat person. I have more than 75 hats: Everything from fedoras, stocking caps, baseball caps and beach hats. Oh, I can’t forget the hats I’ve collected for Derby Day, and the (now) very-dusty-Jenny-from-the-Block topper. – Thank God I left that phase.

Considering my love of hats and my background, it’s a little ironic that I don’t actually own a cowboy hat and I haven’t since I was about 8. 

I have a tacky gas station straw hat I once got on the way to a hard rock festival but rarely wear it and if I do, it’s to the beach. It reminds me a little of a particular country singer, whom I find pompous and annoying.

My dad, on the other hand, has a cowboy hat for every occasion. He has the old white hat for every day, a semi-old hat for “going to town” (which really means catching an easy dinner at the local diner) a semiformal black hat and the latest edition black felt hat for “formal” occasions.  He even has a hard hat some co-workers had made for him in the shape of a cowboy hat.

I’m still trying to decide if the hats we wear say a little something about us or not. I lean to the side of “yes” but I haven’t figured out what. My favorite hat is one of my oldest: a newsboy that I got from my grandpa when I was little ­– a style that seems fitting, considering my profession.

Who knows, maybe one day I’ll give in and get myself a real cowboy hat to add to the collection. In the meantime, I admit the goofy straw cowboy hat is still fun, putting it on makes me smile because then I must be on my way to the beach.  Well, that is once I get the picture of a crusty Brett Michaels out of my head.

It’s a big weekend for the sprinters

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On Friday, one of the biggest but little-known weekends in racing will begin: The Bank of America Challenge Championships.

The Challenge Championships is to American Quarter Horses what the Breeders’ Cup is to Thoroughbreds – sort of. Horses will be running a number of prestigious races they have had to qualify for by winning regional races throughout the country this year.  The Challenge will offer more than $5 million in purse money this weekend alone.

I admit, I’m actually partial to the Challenge since Quarter Horses are my family’s business but this is probably a good time to explain some of the differences between the two breeds of racing. 

There are a number of differences between running the Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses but I think it is best explained by thinking of Quarter Horses as the sprinters whereas Thoroughbreds are the distance runners.

Quarter Horses actually take the title of the “fastest” horse in the world as they can (and do) reach speeds of nearly 50 mph.

The average distance for an American Quarter Horse race is about 350 yards but it can vary from a 100 yards to 850 yards. Many times Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds will be racing at the same track during the same season or when a track hosts a “mixed meet” During a mixed meet, Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds sometimes run against one another in an 850-yard race, and those can be interesting, if not fun for bragging rights.

At such short distances, Quarter Horse races time out between 17 and 18 seconds. In less than a minute, years of work, money, and hope can pay of…or not. There is no time for Quarter Horses to be closers, they have to be out in front with a clear path from the start or be ready to fight for the lead with everything they have.

This year’s Bank of America Challenge will be held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans. First post is 5 p.m. Friday. All 13 races will be shown live nationally on HRTV, and this year’s show will be hosted by Gary Stevens and Jon White. Stevens is a hall-of-fame jockey who often does the Kentucky Derby show and also starred in Seabiscuit. Stevens and his brother Scott (who still rides at Canterbury in the Twin Cities) got started riding Quarter Horses.

Zenyatta: Still a win

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I was hoping for a bit of a miracle on Saturday and even though it seemed to be missed by a nose, I think in the end, I got what I was looking for.

No mint juleps, but  a good margarita and a big TV that could show the race with a Bison game going on at the same time are what I found to watch Zenyatta in the Breeder’s Cup.  

For the better part of an hour, no one else was watching our TV; instead all were focused on football.  But soon, I noticed a slight shift the closer it got to post time. I started looking around,  at first seeing just a flicker of interest catching  one or two’s eye, but as the countdown to post time clicked down, interest perked up.

Watching the race from a horsemen’s perspective, or one with experience in the industry, I know what a feat it truly was for Zenyatta despite the second place finish.

The odds just piled up and from the start when she was pinched off at the break. True to her style, it wouldn’t have been a big deal but it set her farther back than she has ever been, at one point 20 lengths (a length is about the length of a horse) from the front runner. Then, not only does she have to run faster and harder for most of the race, when she went to make her move, she was boxed out of finding a hole to move on the rail and jockey Mike Smith (beautifully by the way) had to take her to the outside of the pack to get through which means she also had to make a wider turn, once again covering more ground than the inside horses.

As I saw the wall of horses come around the last turn and Zenyatta find her hole to push forward,  I heard my voice turn from a subconscious whisper  of “Go! Go! GO!” turning into full screams.  

 I stopped myself and instinctively looked around expecting to see the football fans looking at me like I had had one too many. Instead, it seemed like the whole place had somehow gathered around our table – which was front and center – when I wasn’t looking. No one heard me yelling because they were too busy rooting for Zenyatta themselves.

She picked off the other horses one by one and was about to do it to Blame when the wire hit. Even at the end, it was evident Mike still had horse left. Having “horse left” means she still had the stamina to pull ahead of Blame had she had the distance.  

It was heartbreaking.

But, it was also heartwarming. I witnessed a large group of strangers get so involved in a race not part of the Triple Crown, and one they likely knew little about. They cheered her on like a Bison running back about to score an overtime touchdown and appeared as disappointed in the second place finish as if they’d known her all the while.

For me, the reason I love this crazy world of horse racing is because it is somewhat of a reflection of the human spirit. To succeed, it takes a little bit of luck, some talent, much work and most of all, a lot of heart.

No one showed more heart than Zenyatta on Saturday. For that, I couldn’t be happier.

No Ordinary Girl

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By 5 p.m. today, I plan to have my dress on, stilettos strapped and some ridiculously ugly hat on … and I’ll likely have no place to go.

I will, however, be ready for horse racing  history to be made.

Zenyatta, the first and only filly or mare (female horses) to win the $5 million Breeders’ Cup will be running her last race before retirement. (Yes that means a horse won more in 2 minutes than most pro-ballers make in a year.) 

Not only her last race will happen on Saturday, but her last win if all goes correctly. Her record currently stands at 19-0.

So, if you’re not a fan of horses or horse racing why should you care?
Well, you really don’t have to. But why does anyone care about any sport, anyway?

For one, competitions are fun to watch. We root for someone to win (more often than not the underdog) and it makes us feel good when they do. But in Zenyatta’s race, as a girl, I particularly root for her to win.

See, she has routinely beaten not only the other horses in every race she’s won but she’s beaten the boys. Even in the Kentucky Derby ­– the most well-known of all horse races although not the richest – only a handful of girls have won.

Zenyatta is the story of a fellow girl (albeit one with four legs) who has gone up against the boys and beaten the pants off ‘em every time, even when the odds are stacked against her.

Physically and mentally, the male (studs or geldings) horses tend to tower over the fillies in racing. But, Zenyatta’s record isn’t the only thing that stands out about her.
At 17-hands, Zenyatta’s grace and beauty is incomparable. She towers over her competition and her sheer size rivals that of Secretariat.

Speaking of Secretariat and getting back to why this Saturday’s race is important: Zenyatta is somewhat the Secretariat of my generation. Even the most non-involved person with horse racing knows who Secretariat is and is aware (if not only subtly) of the reverberations that went out around the world the day he won the third leg of the Triple Crown. Think, of the cry, “He’s a tremendous maaaccchhinnneee…..” or the Time Magazine cover of the big beautiful “Red.”

Well, if, er…I mean whenZenyatta wins her second back-to-back Breeder’s Cup and sets a career record of 20-0, she will likely do it in true Zenyatta style: Coming from the back to pull out a win in the nick of time, and although she likely has the speed and endurance left to do so, not pulling out too far ahead. She doesn’t like to hurt “the other horses’ feelings,” as her owners suspect. 

So when her nose hits that wire first, it will likely reverberate around the world once again. A moment in time that will live on for the next  how-many-years to be relived in books, magazine covers and the like until even those who never knew what a Zenyatta was—does.

It might not be a banner wave for the underdog (she is favored to win), but it will be a coup for the girls and it is something I would much rather watch live than hear about it after the fact. 

And so, I will be there too, in true horse racing style, donning  my best dress, girliest threads and highest heels (because horse racing is not a “cowboy” thing)  with a slightly disgusting mint julep in my hand.

 Now, I just need to find a place in Fargo that knows how to make mint juleps….