And Their Off

was Ish Kabibble from SPike Jones? My aunt had a huge SJ collection on records that were kinda reddish in color. They were as thick as pizzas covered with sauce.
Her son, my cousin DOUCHEMAN, is a fuckin gun nut who hunts wild boar with a 50cal PISTOL. He used all my aunts record collection for targets. She had stuff that were classic recordings and he made the decision to just blow big holes into them at 50 yrds..
Doucheman listens to Kenney Chesney and Taylor Swift. (Hes a 58 year old total moron)

I really got a different look about racing when they put down Barbaro. I had it with the Media too...for putting it on camera. Since then, it took me a few years to put it out of mind. The owners are now where my vitriol resides.

Beautiful clear win by American Pharoah at Belmont. He earned his place in racing history yesterday and it was exciting watching him do it.

well, American Pharoah and Secretariat shared 2 big things

Pharoah is the great great great great grndson of Secretariat so their genes are there. Also, both horses were real hams with the camera and seemed to enjoy all the fuss.

One camera shot of his face, just before the race, convinced me this was no ordinary horse.

There's an intelligence to horses and an awareness about which I had no idea.

Furthermore, I understand that it's this extreme loyalty, to
trust and desire to please that propels them forward in a race.

Yes, Ish Kabibble was with Spike Jones, I seem to recall Spike had a tv show in the late 50's but I'm not sure. My mother was the SJ fan, it took my Dad years before he would admit they were funny. Anybody remember Spike's version of Laura or My old Flame?
I have a suggestion for cousin DOUCHMAN, arm the boars. He actually used those records for target practice????? What an idiot!!!!!!

mr. g'bag and I were talking about Barbaroso last night after the race. What happened to that animal was disgraceful. There is a overly large seedy side to horse racing, and as much as I love looking at those magnificent animals, its never far from my thoughts how terribly they are treated so jockeys and owners an have bragging rights. There is no honor in horse racing, its about money and the horses are dispensible

The media is nothing more than tabloid bullshit, and its been that way for far too many years. Walter Cronkite would have refused to do such a story, Dan Rather refused to lead each broadcast with the Anna Nicole Smith fiasco, but we don't have any more principled or serious reporters. They caved to those morons who complained that they didn't watch the news because it was depressing. Well now every broadcast has a happy piece to share, maybe an unusual way of proposing to a girlfriend or kitten tricks. We already have those TMZ and Access Hollywood for the lazy morons, the National News doesn't really need to cover those stories.

Oh fudge, I got carried away didn't I????

But your criticism of horse racing and news casting is spot on.

I remember the Secretariat win, wasn't he 20 lengths ahead of the pack? Damn that was glorious to see.

Something like that. Secretariat -what a gorgeous athlete...and what domination. I think it was 31-length win..and in record time...when he won the Triple Crown

BTW, pardon me if I mentioned it before: American Pharoah is the 5th generation bloodline from Secretariat. (oops...FM and I mentioned it)

I think it was 29 lengths..

Anyway, not everyone in racing is evil.
I think the owners and trainer and jockey of California Chrome have acted well, at least from my reading.

Just read Ragman's take of it being 31 and I think I remember seeing that too. I think reports differed or I have a vivid imagination.

It was hard to tell because Secretariat was in a different Time Zone.

Meantime, I was trying to remember another horse besides Barbaro and finally dug the name out of my brain - Ruffian. I looked her up on Wiki.

Not for the faintharted, but no wonder I remembered her name - fifty years later.

well? what about Ruffian?

Another horse with a sad, and upsetting, end was Eight Belles--a filly who collapsed immediately after crossing the finish wire in the 2008 Kentucky Derby. She had fractures of both front ankles and she was immediately euthanized on the track because of the nature of her injuries. Her demise contributed to the controversy regarding breeding practices in thoroughbred racing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Belles

Very horrible death, explained in wiki.

ohh. Well Barbaro lived about 6 miles from our place an we were inundated with all kinds of newspeople when it happened. MY wife was doing some reasearch at New Bolton Vet Center when Barbaro was there. It was really sad and that horse DID NOT need to be put down. She got on the news because we offered to board the horse and care for him while he slowly recovered. No go, the owners syndicate didnt want his genes out there unsupervised. SO they jacked him off, froze his sperm, and killed him. Nice industry eh?

Oh, that's ugly stuff.

I don't want to paraphrase Ruffian's death, or even post it, as it's pretty upsetting to read.

Meantime, American Pharoah's owners, the Bafferts, and the jockey, Victor Espinoza, and the trainer, are donating the winnings to some good charities -
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2489262-american-pharoah-jockey-victor-espinoza-donates-belmont-stakes-money-to-charity