Congratulations, social-media jockeys. A healthy portion of the goodwill engendered by the exploits of American Pharoah was just flushed down the porcelain convenience by the ranting and raving over Sports Illustrated’s choice of Serena Williams instead of their Triple Crown hero as 2015 Sports-whatever of the Year.

Behold how the mainstream media characterized the mini-tsunami of protest over a decision that was never a matter of public choice in the first place:

“Horse People Are Mad That a Horse Didn’t Win Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year Award” – Slate.

Sam Elliott, the director of racing at Parx, was invited to attend the recent meeting of the American Graded Stakes Committee in Lexington, Ky., as an observer.

“As an observer, it was probably the most difficult seven hours in my life, where I couldn’t say a single word,” Elliott said.

Elliott had a specific interest in the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby, but he also was there just to see the process.

The record of American horses in international events leaves something to be desired. This can be explained away, depending on your point of view, as an endorsement of the U.S. racing circuit as rewarding enough to satisfy the temptations of widespread wanderlust or as an indictment of the U.S. racehorse as frail, drug-addled, and incapable of running on anything other than a monotonous dirt oval. As with American politics, there is no middle ground.

On the face of it, however, the record is grim. For instance:

The prime property of Churchill Downs Inc. is the Kentucky Derby and the publicly traded company tries to maximize revenues from that singular event to boost its bottom line. For a company that has diversified its portfolio broadly outside racing, the Derby is its one big chip left in the sport.

So it was with interest we saw that Churchill had instituted a new future wager on the Kentucky Derby, one for sires, that became available the last weekend of November.

Mike Pegram has never won the Starlet Stakes, which is no big deal because a lot of owners have never won the Starlet Stakes and would like to very much. But Pegram has not won the Starlet Stakes despite owning nice fillies like Silverbulletday, Executiveprivilege, Pussycat Doll, Hookedonthefeelin, Favored One, Arches of Gold, Censored, Miss Gibson County, and Queen of Money. You’d think one of them would have stumbled into the winner’s circle just by accident.

Once maligned as subpar and ordinary, the 3-year-olds of 2014 have turned out to be a better and deeper group than anyone expected.

Dropped by my local book giant the other day, looking for something by Joan Didion. There were toys and games, puzzles and posters, a full service café, and two shelves stuffed with something called “manga” just around the corner from an entire killing field of Bill O’Reilly doorstops.

I was trying to remember the last time I felt so rotten about the death of a Thoroughbred.

In May 2005, I was sick to death to hear Star Over the Bay, a wondrous white tornado of a turf horse, would not be coming home from Singapore, where he broke a leg while running for some ungodly sum of money. Then, I was sick all over again when rider Tyler Baze told me Singapore’s brand of racehorse euthanasia was a bullet to the head and that he never would forget the sound of the gun.

Art Sherman won a $10,000 allowance race at Los Alamitos last Sunday night with a 3-year-old gelding named Well Maybe, a son of Yes It’s True owned by Dr. Ed Allred, who also owns Los Alamitos. It was the only bright spot on an otherwise miserable day as a horse trainer.

Most racetracks would kill for Del Mar’s numbers, especially at a time of year when the Breeders’ Cup has come and gone and thoughts have turned to just about anything other than horse racing.

Bemoaning the fact that the average daily handle dipped to just below $10 million for the meet that ended last Sunday seems the height of ingratitude. The Del Mar figure was twice the $4.9 million average posted by the Churchill Downs meet that ran concurrently. Clearly, horseplayers liked what they saw and bet what they could.