A lot of things stand out Derby week: who’s working well, who’s sore in a gallop, but - most importantly - who’s not here. Some aren’t here due to injury, but most points earners were declared out by their connections for other reasons.
Admittedly, I didn’t know much about the leggy dark bay son of Rock Hard Ten before his Spiral win. Now I realize that Black Onyx is the Bill Murray of horses.
Every horse deserves a shot at the Derby, but there’s a twinge of “what if” from seeing the list of late additions. What about the horses that didn’t have a chance at the points?
The 2013 Racing Hall of Fame inductees were announced today and a huge congrats goes to the connections of the fantastic equine stars Lure, Housebuster, Invasor, and the steeplechase freak McDynamo. But perhaps most intriguing is that Calvin Borel is the only human among this year’s class.
Horses are born to run and to see them flourish on the sport’s biggest stage is a gift I thank the racing gods for every day. The extremely fun part of my job is that I never know what that will be on a given day.
Everywhere you look nowadays, we’re being told what the Next Big Thing is. An entire cottage industry of reality shows has been dedicated to this very concept, but reality TV ain’t got nothin’ on racing.
