No horse, no USA: Why the naughty horses at the 151st Kentucky Derby continue to thrill us
Race at Churchill Downs on Saturday May draws over people the largest attendance for a live sporting event in America Racehorses stir something deep in us Whether you are watching or wagering this st running of the Kentucky Derby is a moment to cherish the the majority indispensable animal in human civilization the horse It all began years ago in the Bronze Age when the Shintashta civilization domesticated horses and spread promptly throughout Eurasia In human care horses bred more successfully according to the Smithsonian With horses people planted crops settled the far corners of the world and carved out epic moments of human history One brown mare got Paul Revere to Lexington on April No horse no USA BOB BAFFERT'S KENTUCKY DERBY RETURN A TIMELINE OF THE SAGA THAT KEPT THE FAMED TRAINER FROM CHURCHILL DOWNSOf module the colts in the Kentucky Derby are all classy Thoroughbreds and you can trace the bloodline parentage of every one of them back to the year But I have a secret to tell you about these three-year-olds They can be naughty boys When you see specific of the antics you have to marvel at the give-and-take in the partnership that has been so crucial to human history It s not easy There s Burnham Square who exercises with his neck bowed down in morning workouts and demands more than half a mile to relax and settle in He s just a little strong Yeah he tries to bite the pony rider And the pony And he s a little bit of a clown his exercise rider Mark Cutler stated FanDuel TV But he s not bad at all he s really grown up in the last sparse months Natural high spirits that would terrify moms and daughters from the show horse world are laughed off at a racing barn As for the grey Sandman owner Griffin Johnson says he s not as crazy as what his father can be but he s definitely brought the personality and the goofiness Sandman s sire Tapit now age is a quirky intelligent grey whose offspring have earned over million at the track Sandman is the spitting image of him and has already earned over a million dollars himself Quirks are tolerated with that kind of success In the barn Sandman is constantly having a good time and he makes it easy to love the sport Johnson explained in an interview with Andie Biancone Mind you they aren t all up as horsemen say Coal Battle from Louisiana is the laid-back type If he s not lying down he s usually at the back of his stall just relaxing He knows when it s competition time his trainer Lonnie Briley advised the Louisville Courier-Journal Personality counts because on race day anything can happen Fortune favors the long-striding horse but the horse has to want the win Take Journalism a son of Curlin whose speed figures in his wins at several races this spring were astonishing At Santa Anita on April Journalism stalked on the rail at the back of the pack Jockey Umberto Rispoli was standing in the stirrups with his knees straight and butt high the position jockeys take when they aren t yet asking the horse for real speed Then at the seven-sixteenths pole came near accident Journalism was shuffled behind one horse bumped by another but tipped out into the clear and spun three wide into the stretch as the official Equibase chart put it Rispoli questioned for power in the homestretch and Journalism surged to beat his rival Baeza by almost lengths They ll meet again in the Derby CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONIn Kentucky anything can happen Big loud crowds put huge pressure on the horses The Kentucky Derby runners all arrived days ago to practice loading at the gate working out on the track and being tacked up for the walkover to the paddock The walkover used to be trainers grooms and hotwalkers but now it s turned into this whole event in its own right the horse Journalism s trainer Michael McCarthy narrated the Paulick Summary Every horse has - people so you re just hoping they get to the paddock without hurting anyone admitted McCarthy For all their antics the young Thoroughbreds gathered in Kentucky remind us how horses can take you a little bit out of yourself demanding empathy and bravery The scrappy exhilarating nature of galloping a horse lifts us mere bipeds into another realm Here is the same thrill that keeps kids asking for pony rides at the county fair and eventually learning the bravery and empathy necessary to riding jumping and racing It s the connection that can be so successfully tapped for therapy for veterans or just as a way to learn patience It's the reason for fancy hats and bowties worn to honor the status of the horse in human society For when the trumpet sounds the connection is everything For the Derby Rispoli says he won t force Journalism I m pretty sure that once he s ready to run he will make me understand it s time to go Rispoli stated
