Tag Archives: Kentucky Derby

Sports news

Cancel culture bites horse? What?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Did I hear this correctly?

Bob Baffert, the legendary race horse trainer, told Fox News over the weekend that his steed, Medina Spirit, is a victim of what they call the “cancel culture.”

Eh? What the … ?

Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby. He is trained by Baffert. The race gurus then ran a test on the horse and found some sort of illegal drug in his system. He faces disqualification if a second test confirms the first one.

Now we have Baffert telling a right-wing media outlet — those goofs at Fox — that he and Medina Spirit have been victimized by the lefties’ “cancel culture.” That the horse is the victim of some nefarious plot to disqualify him from winning racing’s crown jewel.

Man, oh man. I do not get this guy.

He denies the horse had the drugs in his system. The tests say something different. If a second test confirms the first, the horse will face disqualification. It’s a simple issue, yes?

Medina Spirit may have been racing with a substance flowing through his veins that he wasn’t supposed to have. Someone gave him the drug — allegedly.

Ain’t no cancel culture at work here … Bob!

Sports news

What happens now?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Medina Spirit has tested positive or an anti-inflammatory drug and could be disqualified from the Kentucky Derby race he won this past weekend.

This is a big deal for one reason. The horse’s trainer, Bob Baffert, is one of the legends of horse racing. He’s won a ton of Derby races. Including with the most recent two Triple Crown winners.

As for the drug that Medina Spirit took — allegedly! — I am left to wonder if it gave the horse an unfair advantage over the field. I tend to think not.

I don’t usually get wrapped up in horse racing until the same horse wins the Derby and then the Preakness. Then I get interested in the Belmont Stakes to see if the steed can win the Triple Crown.

This thing with Medina Spirit, though, is troubling, given the nature of the substance he allegedly consumed and whether it affected the outcome of the race.

Sports news

Wait’ll next year for return to horse-racing interest

Well, that’s it for me for this Triple Crown horse-racing season.

It was bad enough that the “winner” of the Kentucky Derby actually was the second-place finisher, given that the initial winner, Maximum Security, got disqualified for interfering with other horses’ gallop down the stretch.

Now we hear that Country House, the Derby “winner,” isn’t going to run in the Preakness, the No. 2 leg on the chase for horse-racing’s vaunted Triple Crown.

That’s it. I’m out.

I was thrilled to watch Justify win the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes in 2018. It thrilled me even more to watch American Pharaoh do it in 2015, as it had been 37 years since Affirmed won all three of ’em in 1978.

The same horse has to win the first two races for me to gin up any kind of excitement for this sport.

So, the horse-racing season is over for me.

I’ll just bet, too, that TV ratings for the Preakness and the Belmont are heading into the tank.

Sports news

Nothing PC about this disqualification, Mr. POTUS

Donald J. “Horse Racing Expert in Chief” Trump has tweeted his displeasure over this past weekend’s result in the Kentucky Derby.

It seems the president of the United States is unhappy that Maximum Security was disqualified for blocking a couple of his competitors as the horses came down the home stretch in the famed horse race.

The president, though, said the decision was a bow to what he called “political correctness.” To which I scratch my noggin in astonishment.

There was nothing I could see that was PC about the stewards’ decision to DQ Maximum Security and give the victory to the second-place finisher, Country House.

I saw the video of the infraction. Maximum Security violated the rules. Country House, one of the longer shots in the field, was granted the victory according to the rules of the race.

So, Mr. President, stop blaming a form of “political correctness” where none exists. Stick to tweeting about things about which you know something.

Oh, wait! That would be nothing at all.

Sports news

You go, Patch!

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t give a hoot about the Kentucky Derby, a horse race that occurs each May in Louisville, Ky.

This year, though, is different.

A thoroughbred named Patch is going to take his place Saturday in the starting gate. I want Patch to win the race.

Why? The beast has just one eye.

I get excited about horse racing only when the same horse wins the first two legs of the Triple Crown — the Derby and the Preakness. My favorite horse races of all time were the 1973 and 2015 Belmont Stakes, the final Triple Crown race.

In1973, Secretariat won the Triple Crown by damn near lapping the field at the Belmont. In 2015, American Pharoah broke a 37-year Triple Crown drought by leading from wire to wire in a stunning race.

This year, I’m hoping to watch the Kentucky Derby and am going to cheer for Patch to show up those other horses. He’s about a 30-to-1 underdog. Hey, horses have come from farther down on the odds chart to win.

Go for it, Patch!

Sports news

Now, let's go for the Triple Crown

4 Comments

17preakness-master675

Hey, what’s going on here?

I usually don’t watch any of the Triple Crown legs until the Belmont Stakes comes up. And then it’s only if the same horse has won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.

So, what did I do today? I sat down with my wife and watched American Pharaoh win the Preakness.

What’s more, the horse won it going away … in the slop … in a downpour.

It was impressive.

Now I’m going to watch the Belmont Stakes for sure to see if this horse can become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978, when Affirmed beat another great horse, Alydar, in the sport’s greatest two-horse duel over the course of all three races.

I’m pulling hard for American Pharaoh to win the Belmont.

But if you want to see the sport’s greatest exhibition of equine dominance, take a look at this:

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Waiting for the next big horse race

Horse-racing buffs know that this is Kentucky Derby weekend.

I’m not one of them. I’ve never really gotten into horse racing, let alone betting on the ponies. As for racing’s Triple Crown, well, I don’t care much about that, either.

Except when a certain thing happens. I begin to care about when the same horse wins the first two races of the Triple Crown: the Derby and the Preakness.

Then comes the Belmont Stakes and that is when I get interested. I usually tune in to the final Triple Crown race to see if the Derby and Preakness winner can win the Triple Crown.

The first time I got really interested in this three-horse event occurred in 1973, when Secretariat astounded the world by winning the Belmont Stakes — and the Triple Crown — in utterly astonishing fashion. (See link attached to this blog and you’ll see what I mean.)

Of all the great stories and observations about that race I’ve heard, my favorite came from jockey Ron Turcotte.

As Secretariat galloped into the home stretch, Turcotte has said, he noticed he couldn’t hear any other horse noises; no horses grunting, no hooves pounding … only the sound of his own horse’s hooves pounding along at a record pace.

It was then that Turcotte turned around and saw that Secretariat was running all alone. The second-place horse was about 20 lengths back. I should add that at no point in the race did Turcotte hit his horse with the whip jockeys use to make their beasts run faster.

I’m sure some folks will get all excited about the Kentucky Derby. I’ll get excited if the Derby’s winner pulls off another win at the Preakness.

Then I’ll get excited.