Full of Run

I don’t have much to say here. Jeremy Rose, who rode Afleet Alex so masterfully in 2004 and 2005, has been suspended for 6 months for whipping his mount IN THE FACE. He strikes her not once but twice with the whip in his left hand. She has since been taken to the Bolton Medical Center and is expected to recover without loss of her eyesight. In this video, a head on view, you can see the horse (Rose is wearing yellow, the color of cowardace) on the rail at about :55 seconds. Then at 1:00 he hits her and she jerks her head to the right. Then he hits her again and she runs across traffic, endangering other horses and riders.

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When I was taking flying lessons, my instructor had two sayings that he loved to repeat. The first was, “There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots. But there are no old, bold pilots.” I suspected he liked this saying because he, himself, was an old pilot. He had been flying since the 40’s.
His second saying I found to be much more profound. (more…)

There are a lot of romantic sayings about horses. For example, “Nothing is as good for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.” Or the old Arabian proverb, “The wind of Heaven blows between a horse’s ears.” To me, though, the most moving thing I have ever heard about a horse was said on ESPN, of all places. It was during its “Sports Century” series, which included an episode about Secretariat. “Big Red” was named one of the 2oth Century’s 50 top atheletes.

An ex-NYRA official, who was present (more…)