The Kentucky Derby took place yesterday for the 138th time at the famous Churchill Downs racetrack. The event is deemed "the most exciting two minutes in sports," and a record crowd of more than 165,000 attended the race. However, each time I watch the derby, it seems like the race matters less and less. All the event really showcases is the extravagent and ridiculous clothing worn by men and women in Kentucky, and the profile of all the horse owners who have spent a bunch of money on the race.
The race begins at 6:30 after about six hours of pre-race festivities, most of which involve cocktails, big hats, and gambling. In my opinion, these horse races are absolute shams. Everyone at the event, and probably about 75% of the people watching on television are only watching to see the horse they bet on. (Some of us, like myself, are just watching because the race happened to occur during a commercial break of the Diamondbacks game). Either way, horse racing is, in my opinion, the most tainted "sport," and the race for the second most tainted isn't even close.
Each year, the same owners and the same trainers find their new horse to try to make a fortune off of. The problem is, most of this "training" involves drugs, and not much of it includes actual running on a track. These owners spend tens of thousands of dollars (the winning horse this year cost "only" $11,000) to try to find the genetically perfect horse. Once the horse reaches the age allowed for competition, the owner enters it in competition and hopes that it maks as much money as possible, in as little time as possible. Once the horse has served its purpose, it is bred with another race horse in hopes of the offspring becoming even faster than its parents.
The path that the owners and trainers take to find this genetic freak of a horse knows no bounds. The horses are injected with all kinds of steroids as they are "trained." As the next race nears, the owners find the smallest jockey they possibly can (because the lighter the jockey, the faster the horse can run), and no matter the finish of the horse, the jockey will only receive a fraction of the winnings. As if the horse/jockey combination isn't already light enough, minutes before the race, most horses are fed drugs that make them urinate enough to lose several pounds (because, of course, the lighter the better). Once the race starts, the horses take off, the bettors cross their fingers, and the jockeys break out the whips. At the end, the horse that has been most effectively drugged and whipped comes out on top, and the old rich white man and his wife in her enormous hat celebrate, and most of the bettors wonder how their "expert" analysis failed. The owner of the winning horse gets to show his face on television, collect his check, and have his five minutes of fame. As far as the jockey and the horse, they still have the rest of the year to prove their worth. Once that year is up, the owner casts them aside and counts his money while his wife buys herself a nice new wardrobe.
When you watch a race, it is clear that it is about nothing but money. The odds are posted next to the names of all the horses, and then winnings are posted right after the race. ESPN employs a man named Hank Goldberg who picks horse racing and football. And he is horrible at both. He never picks the winning horses and each week he picks more football games wrong than he does right. He is just an old man with a gambling problem, and that is why I'm sure he was at the Kentucky Derby yesterday at the front of the betting lines.
Horse racing shouldn't be considered a sport. It's just a glamourous way for rich old men to flaunt their money and get their faces on television and in the newspaper. The horses and the jockeys are the two least important parts of horse racing. As long as the cameras are on and the betting windows are open, no one really cares how the race is won.
And by the way, the winning horse of the race yesterday was named "I'll Have Another." That's actually fitting because that might have been the phrase that was uttered the most during the course of the entire day at Churchill Downs. Whether it was martinis, bets, inside tips, big hats, or any kind of drugs to give the horses to make them run faster, all anyone was saying was, "I'll have another."
Daily Rangers Update: The series is tied 2-2 after four games, which is what I would think most people would have expected. It's back to Madison Square Garden tomorrow night for a big Game 5. If the Rangers don't win, it will be back to Washington with the season on the brink, so that is not something that we want to see happen. The puck drops in about 23 hours. Let's Go Rangers!
Daily Diamondbacks Update: R.A. Dickey was throwing a knuckleball today and not many Diamondbacks were hitting it. A late run at least helped avoid the shutout, but it wasn't enough to get the win. After a 5-7 road trip, it's back home to face the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals tomorrow night. The pitching matchup features Joe Saunders and Lance Lynn, both of whom have been brilliant during the first month of the season. A win would be nice to get us back to .500.
Daily Giants Update: Eli Manning hosted Saturday Night Live last night, and I thought he did a pretty good job. The EA Sports motion capture skit and the courtroom skit were my two favorites, but they were all pretty good. For a guy that is far from a stand-up comedian, I liked the show. Minicamp is also around the corner, as some teams have already started rookie camps. That means football is slowly getting closer!
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