Moody Monday

A pile of bills beside my computer is getting higher than the frozen icebergs that used to be fluffy snowbanks outside. Good grief -30 with the wind chill and the house just isn’t getting warm.
Lucky (unlucky) for me, I am housebound these days with a cast on one hand/arm, the result of a much needed carpal tunnel procedure.

TRIPLE CROWN nominations being released is neat to review though, a bit warming when you think of all the cool racing and horses to look forward to.
CANADIAN-breds on the list are:
BUFFALO MAN (El Prado), DAN MCGREW (Smart Strike), COBRADOR (El Prado), MARCHFIELD (A.P. Indy), OISTINS BAY (Deputy Minister), PIRATE’S LEGEND (Perigee Moon), REATA’S ROCKET (Cape Canaveral), SEASIDE LINKS (Street Cry), TWILIGHT METEOR (Smart Strike), UNCONSTRAINED (Touch Gold), UPJUMPEDABOOGIEMAN (Touch Gold).

MILHOUSE writes about his COLTS, okay so my Football picks might be as dicey as my racing picks… eeks. Forget that though how ‘bout those TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS??

As far as Queen’s Plate winterbook odds (when are we going to be able to bet on this thing?), noms for the Triple Crown closed on the 1st I believe, so I should be supplied with a list this week. Odds will likely come out early March.

At the risk of dragging this thing out, it’s incredible to me how unfeeling and evil people can be. Anyone who didn’t get immersed in this Tj Simers business last week are lucky. It’s ugly now. Yes, the emails this loser has received are quite ridiculous, racing people have lost their minds but that’s just the passion talking. What about all the people involved in racing whether it be writing, media, management who also could care less about the horse? Believe me there are A LOT of them out there. But it’s no reason to threaten harm or death in an email. Just feel sorry for people like Simers and those at your local track who don’t get it either.
I know I will.
Here’s a piece from Steve Davidowitz…

If you believe the philosophy of Los Angeles Times Sports Columnist T.J. Simers, who implied in his column the day after Barbaro died, that no race horse should have any more impact on human concern than a squirrel or a rabbit getting splattered as road kill, then you should own no pets, or be involved with any life form other than your self.
If you side with Simers, you probably should feel ashamed to have spent energy thinking about Barbaro, much less rooting for his survival against steep odds. According to Simers you were wasting valuable emotion when a sinking feeling came over you when you learned there was no longer any hope for this horse.
Clearly Mr. Simers and those who feel the same, can not accept the fact that horse racing has been a part of civilized cultures around the world for dozens of centuries. Clearly Mr. Simers sees no special connection to the beautifully proportioned Thoroughbred racehorse and the electric, sometimes improbable feats of speed and stamina that so many owners, breeders and racing fans forever can recall from memory.
Despite the occasional callousness that creeps into the racetrack game, despite the drug related problems horse racing shares with all professional (and amateur) sports, it is a documented fact that the vast majority of people who work with Thoroughbreds at every level treat them to the best nutrition, the best preventive medical care in the animal kingdom.
Should those who think horse racing is a misguided way to deal with horses, they should realize that Barbaro would not have existed at all without the sport, nor would Secretariat, or Man o’ War, or the most magnificent of the breed. Beyond the bets won and lost, beyond the roller coaster ride we were all on with Barbaro these past eight months, the world itself would be poorer for the lack of his amazing performance in the Kentucky Derby and the connection so many felt with him.
Equally important, Barbaro’s last eight months of life at the New Bolton Center, will have consequences for dozens of years. Just as the death of Ruffian in the 1975 match race with Foolish Pleasure led to advances in veterinary medicine that gave Barbaro a chance to survive, so too from Barbaro will come better handling of fractures and possibly better handling of laminitis.
At the very least, he is likely to inspire millions of dollars of donations to the New Bolton Center for Equine Research which needs all the help it can get.
In the meantime, Mr. Simers was 100 percent correct when he stated one obvious fact in his L.A. Times’ column: “I just don’t get it,” he said.
No indeed, Mr. Simers and those who look through his narrow and distorted perspective do not get it at all. That is their loss; Barbaro is ours. END

I recently exchanged e-mails with a woman who wrote a piece in the Rochester something-or other on how racing should be banned. She totally didn’t it at all, either.
Bah. Happy Monday.

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