NFL fan No. 1: “Remember the referee lockout of 2012?”
NFL fan No. 2: “Whoa. Yes, those were some crazy times.”
NFL fan No. 1: “Yep. Pass me a beer.”
Some people would like you to believe that it’s going to be years until the NFL lockout of its referees spurs such mundane conversation. But my gut instinct tells me that the three-week lockout, which ended Thursday with an agreement between the owners and the referees, will be an afterthought in a matter of weeks.
The philosophers insist that if you want to give God a good belly laugh, make a plan. If that’s true, He must have been howling to the heavens early last spring when Rick Porter casually broached the idea of running his 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace one time at Santa Anita in the fall to get a race over the track before taking a shot at the 2012 version of the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Barely three weeks later Porter announced that Havre de Grace was injured and retired.
The people who run Santa Anita Park have every reason to enjoy positive vibes as the 2012 fall meet begins on Friday.
Momentum is on their side. The Del Mar summer meet was an unqualified smash in terms of handle and attendance, reaffirming that even in these tough economic times there is still a market for horse racing presented in a quality stadium with professional referees.
Deep within the bowels of the National Horseracing Museum, on Newmarket’s busy High Street in England’s Suffolk County, Alfie Westwood beckons the visitor to come sit on his racehorse.
Westwood is a docent of a very special nature, and his horse is the mechanical kind, geared to give kids of all ages a rolling go at what it’s like to ride a Thoroughbred at racing speed.
“I hope your dad brought his camera,” Westwood said. The wee one nodded as Alf held out a set of silks.
“Put these on – know who they belong to?”
She did not.
There was a time not that long ago when top-class racing in the fall was largely about the first matchups between the sport’s top 3-year-olds and its top older horses. The rich and highly graded races restricted to 3-year-olds were over by Labor Day, retired to the closet like white shoes, and now it was time to find out just how good the stars of the 3-year-old races were by seeing how they stacked up against their elders.
It’s not my fault. Yeah, I know I was there, both at Belmont Park and Doncaster. But so were a few other people I suppose – media types, the odd wandering horseman, aging Triple Crown groupies – and they must share the burden of bearing witness to disappointments of historic proportions. By now I have unpacked from the trip to England, having found no residue of bad karma in the luggage (it wouldn’t have cleared customs anyway).
For most racing fans, the dead heat between Alpha and Golden Ticket in last month’s Travers Stakes was a charming oddity, the first such outcome in a Travers in more than a century. For those (and I was not among them) who had the acumen to include 33-1 Golden Ticket in their pick four and pick six tickets that day, however, they will remember the race for exposing a flawed and unfair parimutuel rule that deprived them of their rightful winnings on the race.
The autograph hounds were out in force on Del Mar’s closing day, bearing down on a fresh target. John Velazquez graciously complied, signing hats, shirts, books, programs, and photos every time he left the jocks’ room for the saddling paddock. If he minded he hid it well, although by now it’s pretty clear Velazquez does not mind at all.
