Apr 122010
Checking Blood-Horse for news this afternoon, a headline stopped me in my tracks.
No, not that Odysseus is off the Derby trail with a chipped left knee. Rather, that longtime New Jersey trainer Alan Seewald had passed away.
I probably met Mr. Seewald only once or twice during my tenure at Monmouth/Meadowlands in 2007. But his runners were a joy to watch because they simply always performed. Seewald leaves behind not just a family, but a 17% career win rate and 22 stakes wins.
When Lentenor ran in the Florida Derby a few weeks back, I wrote about the difference between expectation and sentimentalism – and that it’s ok to like a horse based on merits of both.
Well, when it comes to this week’s Coolmore Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, I am fully on the now-formerly-Seewald-trained Uptowncharlybrown bandwagon.
See, (to borrow Shakespeare’s parlance) the Fates of racing have a funny way of remembering our fallen. The primest example we have of this is the Kilroe Mile earlier this year: just a few months after trainer Bobby Frankel had passed, his former charges Proviso and Fluke finished noses apart on the wire.
Is there a more fitting way to honor those who have passed in this game than to see their horses in the winner’s circle? I think not.
