As we wait to see if I’ll Have Another takes the Triple Crown, let’s revisit Churchill Downs, the old Louisville Jockey Club.  That’s the place where the match race took place between Kentucky horse Ten Broeck and the California horse Mollie McCarty, back in 1878, on the Fourth of July.

They’ve been singing about it since the race happened.  Sometimes called “The Racehorse Song” and sometimes called “Molly and Tenbrooks,” it captures the best and the worst of what happens at Churchill Downs.  I love Bill Monroe’s version, which, like the best of bluegrass, is bittersweet.

Here are the lyrics, in case you can’t make all of them out:

Run oh Molly run, run oh Molly run
Ten-Brooks gonna beat you to the bright and shining sun
To the bright and shining sun oh Lord
To the bright and shining sun

Ten-Brooks was a big bay horse, he wore a shaggy mane
He run all ’round Memphis, and he beat the Memphis train
Beat the Memphis train oh Lord
Beat the Memphis train

Ten-Brooks said to Molly, what makes your head so red
Running in the hot sun with a fever in my head
Fever in my head oh Lord
Fever in my head

Continue reading →

It’s not world news, but there’s been a lot of press about the fact that HBO is canceling its new drama “Luck” after three horses died during filming.

But did you know that 18 horses have died at Aqueduct since November 30th?

That’s right.  All on the inner dirt track.  And 13 out of those 18 were horses running for a claiming price of $15K or less.

It’s all to be expected, as a natural outcome of breeding for speed alone because stamina isn’t necessary, and running on dirt instead of turf.

I look for good bone when I’m considering an off-the-track Thoroughbred, but that’s gotten harder and harder to find.  It’s not impossible, and there are pictures of horses with decent-to-good bone in my Beauties on the Backstretch post. But it’s gotten to be so unusual to see a horse with good bone, that people don’t even know what a good Thoroughbred is supposed to look like anymore. No wonder that they’ve been replaced in popularity by warmbloods in disciplines where they used to reign king — even in eventing (it’s not just the elimination of the steeplechase that did it).

Continue reading →

Back in January, I wrote a review of the HBO series Luck.  It included a mini rant on the frustrations of watching television shows and movies when you can’t understand what the characters are saying…not because of their vocabulary but because of their e-nun-ci-a-tion.  For weeks thereafter, I got hits on my blog when people googled the search terms “unintelligible dialog.” Really.  No joke.

The news just broke that HBO is now going to cancel the series, following the deaths of three racehorses during production.  The circumstances surrounding the first two deaths are shrouded in mystery, as they say, but the third horse was euthanized after rearing and flipping over.  Without knowing more, I have to chalk it up to bad luck.

As sad as it is, there’s something poignant in art imitating nature and having nature exact its revenge, to which art must submit.  I’m only putting this language in here in honor of David Milch, who would understand. He can use it if he wants in his next project.  He’s got a first look deal with HBO that includes works from Faulkner.  How perfect is that?  Summer’s coming up, so you can enjoy your own festival of unintelligible dialog in A Summer of Faulkner:  As I Lay Dying/The Sound and the Fury/Light in August, from Oprah’s Book Club (go, Oprah!).  After reading it, you realize that the concept of “inside leg to outside rein” is actually pretty straightforward, in contrast.

Continue reading →