Zenyatta Wins 18 in a Row!

   The beautiful Thoroughbred Zenyatta won her 18th race yesterday at the Del Mar race track in Southern California.

   Her story is a good one. She was purchased for a mere $60,000, and she wasn't in the best of health. Owner Jerry Moss said she had a large rash covering her body when he bought her.


   Trainer John Shirreffs, pictured here with Zenyatta, patiently nursed her back to health, and then promptly turned her into an equine superstar. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Reuters)

   The undefeated Zenyatta has earned a total of $6,254,580 to date. She is six years old, and she is named for the rock album "Zenyatta Mondatta" by The Police.

   Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Dwyre wrote a great article here: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0808-dwyre-zenyatta-20100808,0,6960594.column

Another Thing of Beauty Destroyed

   I'm home from the races. I spent all day at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas, watching some of the most beautiful creatures that have ever graced the planet.
Today was also the day for the Arkansas Derby, which included a one million dollar purse. My horse of choice, Dublin, came in third. I won more money back than I bet. But my money is not my concern.
My concern is that I saw another horse "break down" on the race track. The jockey made quite a heroic leap, high off of the foundering horse's back, over the inner fence and into the bushes near the track. I watched that poor horse try to keep running. It may have broken both of its front legs, for all I could tell. It is an awful, sickening thing to see.
I love horses. I LOVE horses! It crossed my mind again today that maybe I should boycott horse races. I listened to what people were saying while the ambulance drove onto the race track. "Number seven broke down." "I hope that man is okay?" "How much money did I win?!"
Is this a cruel sport? Are these animals mistreated? The flow of cash into this sport is the very reason these horses are bred. They wouldn't be here if people like me didn't come to the race track to place bets, drink cold beer and eat delicious corned beef sandwiches. (I know the corned beef sounds disgusting, but it is really really good!)
I asked several employees at Oaklawn if they euthanized the injured horse. An EMT slowly shook his head yes. "The reason they do that is because a horse is so heavy, he can't stay on just three of his legs. The other legs get diseased if he takes the weight off one of them."
He didn't make me feel any better. It seems like we should be able to do more than just kill a horse when it breaks a leg.

Ruffian in Command

I've been depressed all day. I saw real video footage of a 3-year-old filly break her leg open on a racetrack and try to keep running on it.

This horse, named Ruffian, was born to race. Her father was a half-brother to the mighty Secretariat, and Ruffian, true to her blood, never lost. She had a perfect 10-0 record. In every race, Ruffian would sprint out of the gate to the front of the pack, and continue to distance herself from the other horses. She was absolutely phenomenal!

Ruffian's jockey, Jacinto Vasquez, said she had an aura about her, "like Marilyn Monroe, or Raquel Welch." She was tall, elegant, and glistening black. She was everything a race horse should be, and she was insanely popular.
Ruffian's eleventh race was a match against a Derby-winning colt named Foolish Pleasure. This was the first time she would race against a male horse. Ruffian's trainer, Frank Whiteley, was apparently not a fan of match races. Two thoroughbreds racing together will sprint at top speed for the entire mile and a quarter of race track. This is very dangerous for the animals, who are competitive by nature. Whiteley said in an interview that Ruffian's owners told him they would "have to do this sooner or later."
This equine "Battle of the Sexes" between the top two horses in the nation drew thousands of spectators, but it ended in the worst way possible. During the race, Ruffian pulled to the lead, as she always did. Suddenly, she slowed down as her right leg snapped in two. She continued to run, pounding the exposed bone into the ground. Vasquez tried desperately to slow her down. Surgery was done to set her destroyed leg, even though her veterinarian said she had less than a 10% chance of recovering. Ruffian began thrashing around after awakening from anesthesia, and she broke another leg. She was euthanized on July 7, 1975.


"It was one of the most incomplete, unsatisfying experiences that I've ever had. It was...the unfinished symphony of horse racing..." said Bill Nack, a journalist who covered Ruffian's races. "For me, it lost...the glow of romance that the sport had for me, since I was a kid."


Ruffian's entire body is buried at Belmont Park in New York, where she died. And she is facing the finish line.