I don’t have enough time to do Flanders justice with a well researched post but I encountered her when I did my 1994 series. She easily made her way to the top of my “favorite horses I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing” (also including Landaluce, Cigar, and Pebbles to name a few).
Here are all of her replays from YouTube… enjoy her brief but brilliant career:
1994 Maiden Race:
1994 Spinaway:
1994 Matron:
1994 Frizette:
1994 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies:
Rest in peace, and here’s hoping we see that Bernadini colt.
Let’s not kid ourselves, in some cases we prep as much as the Derby contenders do. Don’t believe me? Then feast your eyes on these two weeny-tastic derby spreadsheets:
“Is blogging dead?” was a question posed by my esteemed colleague John of The Race is not to the Swift. He rightfully points out that other options such as Twitter and Facebook are easier outlets than blogging. Indeed.
I commented that as an example, I had posted severaltweetsof stuff I encountered while twirling around the web last night and had I not been on Twitter that they would have probably ended up as a blog post. As an experiment, of sorts, here’s what I probably would have written had I not had twitter:
Since I didn’t really know much about Charismatic or racing in 1999 in general, I looked a little further. I watched the 1999 Belmont to see if any of Watchmaker’s predictions were right (they were not).
And as if all this wasn’t exciting and interesting enough, Haskin also has a compelling post about trainers who are still working that “once ruled the sport“. A true and proven talent not being able to sell themselves and ending up in relative obscurity is not a new phenomenon and certainly not limited to horse racing. History is littered with examples of artists, writers, musicians, etc who suffered the same fate, but as Jessica put it:
I still look at Turner and marvel, that trainer knows what it is to win the Triple Crown.
Here’s a recent trainee of his, Reforestation, hitting the board at 48-1 in the 2009 Grade 1 Prioress at Belmont.
Turner trains for Castle Village Farms, if money bags owners won’t work with the last trainer to win a Triple Crown there’s no reason why you can’t!
I won’t be making it out to Belmont today for “Super Saturday” but wanted to share this gem from Jockey Club Gold Cups past. It’s Exceller’s 1978 win, but what I found compelling about it was Seattle Slew’s performance. The race is run so crazily and fast and Slew holds for a photo finish, fighting back down the whole way down the lane. Truly impressive.
Slew is Ernie Munick’s favorite horse and he posted the link at Facebook along with this first hand account and thought about jinxes:
Marlboro, Woodward, Seattle Slew - the finest autumn of my lifetime. Best supporting actor to Exceller, classy, ambitious and brave. Dad stood behind me near the rail as I screamed, all Fall, Stick, Slew! Stick! He broke thru the gate before the JCGC; the ultimate hoodoo. Yet Six Perfections made us wait, and wait, and wait; Green Girl went happy-haywire at the Gulf; Rachel tossed Calvin. Jinxes’re getting soft on us.
Best of luck today and let’s hope that rain holds out!
While channel surfing on Travers night I ultimately settled on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on IFC, the martial arts sensation film of 2000 responsible for igniting a flying choreography craze. I had never seen it and have never been one to watch martial arts films (although that could change). As I was enjoying the stunning fight choreography and excellent cinematography, one scene stood out to me.
One of the film’s main characters is Jen, who is “destined for an arranged marriage and yearning for adventure“. In short, she steals a fancy powerful sword called the Green Destiny and becomes a kick ass martial artist. Naturally when she shows up at Wudan Mountain (kick ass martial arts academy), all the other kick ass martial artists want to challenge her.
There was one scene in particular that had me laughing out loud because it reminded me of Rachel vanquishing her male challengers one after the other. I thought about that scene so much in the week leading up to the Woodward that I bought the DVD and made my first humble attempt at video editing. Without further adieu, I give you Rachel Alexandra, Invincible Sword Goddess:
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