INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It is not exactly fiddling while Rome burns, but the Kentucky Derby this year will have that feel, as an island of staggering excess and abject denial in the midst of an industry deep in worry and strife.
But hey, as the prophet said, "Which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?"
The man had a point.
ARCADIA, Calif. - There are now 182 horses in the Thoroughbred racing Hall of Fame. Every decade or two, California is acknowledged for producing one of them. Any more often would be pushing it.
In 1966, California's Kentucky Derby winner and 1956 Horse of the Year Swaps was elevated to the Hall. The fact that he entered the Hall of Fame one year after Nashua was not lost on the cowpokes and ruffians out West. But they had no right to complain. After all, indoor plumbing and electricity had only recently crossed the Rockies.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - For those who like a good inside Seinfeld joke - and who doesn't? - the name attached to the final race of the Santa Anita season last Sunday afternoon was "Serenity Now!"
Racing secretary Rick Hammerle gets the credit for summoning a suitable mantra to address the ongoing anxieties of those who yearn for a more stable California horse racing universe. Right now, from grooms to CEOs, everyone is walking on eggshells, fearful of the next boot to drop.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Since there is every possibility that Sunday's program at Santa Anita Park could be the last one under the ownership of Magna Entertainment Corp. - now in bankruptcy and ordered to liquidate assets to settle debts - the high notes of the meet take on a different sort of tone. Call it exit music.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The Balkanization of the Kentucky Derby process has led this year to a favorite from California who has done all his winning in New York, a second choice who began his career in New York but blossomed in California, and a collection of question marks that includes a former second banana who was big in Louisiana, a cluster of sentimental hunch bets, and a splashy gray colt who has won a host of hearts and minds, but not a single stakes event.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Now that the cast of the 135th Kentucky Derby has been pretty well established, with the exception of a few extras to be added for background noise, let us pause a brief few moments to acknowledge the thousands of Thoroughbred foals of 2006 who will not be part of the stampede on May 2 at Churchill Downs.
WASHINGTON - Halsey Minor has made hundreds of millions of dollars as a technology entrepreneur. His San Francisco-based firm bills itself as an investor in start-up companies that seek to "change the shape of business on the Internet." A man on the cutting edge of commerce seems an unlikely candidate to get involved in the moribund horse racing industry. Yet Minor aspires to own racetracks and sees a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire a portfolio of them. Magna Entertainment Corp., the biggest owner of U.S.
ARCADIA, Calif. - It's a great week for righteous indignation, what with Easter, Passover, and the birthday of Buddha all arriving in an ecumenical cluster. Sunday is also David Letterman's 62nd birthday, which is a whole different matter, but still worthy of celebration for those of us who worship at the altar of the absurd.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A steady wind blew across Newmarket Heath and into John Gosden's cell phone. It was Thursday afternoon, his time. He was walking alongside Rainbow View, Britain's champion 2-year-old filly of 2008, after a schooling session in the paddock at Newmarket Race Course. They were about to load Rainbow View onto the horse van, which would take them back home to Gosden's Clarehaven training stable, a few miles down the road.
