The Week of Bourbon

As a former resident of Louisville, KY, I understand that there is no bigger time in the city than the past week preceding the first Saturday in May. I've been too busy with work lately to keep the Derby anywhere but in the back of my mind, but I have noticed myself drinking a little more bourbon this week than usual, and it probably goes back to my days of living in Louisville and participating in the run up to this day.

I have handicapped the Derby in the past, but I haven't paid the field enough attention this year to do it justice. I do think Big Brown will win, but I'm rooting for a working class horse named Bob Black Jack who was originally bought by a former pool shark for $4,500. He's a blue collar horse in a field of equestrian blue bloods. This Saturday is for the "Sport of Kings," but maybe, just maybe a peasant horse can wear the roses in the end.


UPDATE: Big Brown wins it going away. Bob Black Jack lead until the back turn and then seemed to run on empty as it looked like the entire field, including a surging Big Brown, passed him. In a freak accident the horse that placed (finished second), Eight Belles, broke both of her ankles after the race and she was euthanized on the track. I say "freak," but the way these horses are bred to have such thin cannon bones and fetlocks, I'm only surprised that such tragic events don't happen more often.


UPDATE: Some commenters over at the Louisville Courier-Journal website are questioning the owners and breeders in the wake of Eight Belles' tragedy at yesterday's Derby. Here's some samplings:

I can accept that these horses probably do love to run and maybe even compete. But two horses are euthanized at the Rolex Event last week, one breaks his leg at the Oaks, and one euthanized at the Derby yesterday. That is ridiculous.

Eight Belles' head actions were (probably) in response to pain in her legs. She tried to pull herself up, which is the natural instinct for a horse to do when they're in pain. It probably means a hairline fracture at that point.

The jockey (Saez), however, seemed to ignore her actions and began to whip her harder. Eight Belles responded as she had been trained to do, which is to run harder.

When she tried to stop, however, the momentum shifted on the front legs, and what was possibly a hairline fracture snapped the legs, first one, then the other.

You have to wonder when the media is going to start asking tougher questions rather than reveling in the pageantry and celebrity of horseracing.