Sep 062009
Watching Rachel Alexandra win the Woodward was an experience I’ll never forget. There simply aren’t enough adjectives in the dictionary to describe the sheer awesomeness of the event.
Though for as struck as I was by what I saw on-track, what happened afterwards will live with me forever: things like Steve Asmussen (knowing Rachel’d won the milisecond they crossed the wire) wrapping his wife in a bearhug as if to say “we f’in did it!” or watching hardened media professionals who have seen just about everything be rendered speechless.
But my favorite moment is something that happened between me and a man I’ve idolized for years, Edgar Prado.
I was tasked to get losing jockey quotes after the race. Losing jockeys have a pretty standard route: 1) get off horse, 2) talk to trainer, 3) weigh out, and 4) walk to jock’s room. The questions are pretty basic stuff, especially with the folks who don’t win: talk about your ride, did you expect to be on the lead, were you surprised to be so far back, etc. And Saturday had an additional “what do you think of Rachel” quotient.
Alan Garcia got to step #4 before giving me “I had a good trip. My horse (Asiatic Boy) did the best he could but the best horse won the race” before being pulled into the crowd for his goggles (so no Rachel question).
I got back to the winner’s circle just as Edgar Prado (Past the Point) was coming off the scale and that’s where he stopped (at step #3). I walked over to him and asked about his trip: “My horse ran his race, he tried real hard. He broke good, we were on the pace all the way around. And I just didn’t have enough horse coming off the turn.”
Then I got my Rachel question in, to which he answered “I’ve never seen a horse like her. She’s spectacular.” At this time, Rachel had jogged back and was just about to enter the winner’s circle. Edgar just stood there watching and clapping in awe of a horse who’d just soundly beat him.
It’s one thing when Robby Albarado gave Calvin Borel a chest bump post-race and said about Rachel, “she’s doing things that’ve never been done before” and “I don’t like to lose, even to a champion filly.” That’s sportsmanship the way it should be between two friends who have mutual admiration for the animals they ride everyday.
But watching Edgar watch Rachel was something else. There was a stillness to the moment, despite all the hubub going on around us, that will live with me forever.
This is the man who rode Barbaro to Derby victory then saved the horse’s life just two weeks later in the Preakness.
This is the man who’s captured three Breeders’ Cup races (Folklore in ’05 Juvenile Fillies, Silver Train in ’05 Sprint, Round Pond in ’06 Distaff).
This is a man who has over 6,000 wins to his credit.
When Prado was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008, it was standing room only. And here he was (after losing) standing to watch the full effect of the history he had taken part in.
That’s pretty special.
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Click here to buy the paperback version of Prado’s “My Guy Barbaro” – a really, really, really great read (and under $15!)
photo courtesy Eclipse Sports Wire
Nice article.
Edgar is amazing…
Rose……..