Horses in the News-- Monday April 20, 2009

[richiebee]

Horse stories were featured on the front pages of 2 of New York\'s daily
newspapers Monday. I mean why not? America\'s great horse race/party, the
Kentucky Derby, is only 12 days away and the casual racing fan, who will not
spend hours agonizing over replays and performance figures, is looking forward
to a good day of sport to get his/her mind off of what an ex President (whose
mother seemingly rarely missed a day at Oaklawn) called a \"great malaise.\"

In the Daily News, we read the story of Madonna getting bucked off a horse in
the Hamptons. I need to get the name of this ornery steed; if he is a
thoroughbred, I must somehow nominate him for an Eclipse Award, or at least
send him a large basket of apples, sugar cubes and carrots. One NY radio
commentator whose mouth has already landed him in hot water queried whether
reporters may have gotten the story wrong, that maybe it was the horse that
fell off Madonna. In any case \"Madge\'s\" injuries were not serious and she is
going forward with her plans to adopt a boatload of teenaged Somali pirates.

In the more serious New York Times, front page attention was given to Overdose,
the so called Hungarian Seabiscuit. On Sunday Overdose ran his record to 12 for
12, having won races in Italy and Germany. Apparently he also won a stake in
France in near track record time, but the result was nullified due to a
starting gate malfunction.

Sunday\'s victory came at Kincsem Park in Budapest in front of an adoring
hometown crowd of 20,000. The Budapest track is named for Kincsem, a 19th
Century Hungarian racemare who was undefeated in 54 starts. Overdose was
purchased at Newmarket for $3,500; his owner has turned down offers of $6.5
million, giving the wonderful explanation \"You do not sell dreams\".

Derby thought: After the slightly belabored \"Mike Smith saves no ground\" thread,
methinks it would be a tad ironic if Chocolate Candy just misses in the Derby
after being trapped on the rail for 5/8ths of a mile.

One more thought on Mr. Smith-- he is a much better TV analyst than the ex rider
currently working at ESPN