Silver linings to stormy Horse Racing season [View All]

From DRF:
Even Polyanna, bless her soul, would have had trouble smiling while trying to brave the powerful storms that buffeted racing on and off the track this year. Hurricanes pounded the Gulf Coast and tore up tracks from Louisiana to Florida, the New York Racing Association was going broke, Hollywood Park was sold to land developers, the Jockeys' Guild management put on an embarrassing display when hauled before Congress, and an inordinate number of top-class horses missed much of the year with injuries. Heck, they could not even grow grass in California.

If you think that was bad - and it was - imagine just how bad it could have been. Think back to May 21, Pimlico Race Course, a mile into the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the sport's best-known races, the Triple Crown. Two horses came together, causing one to stumble grotesquely, his nose practically touching the ground, his jockey coming out of the stirrups.

From that precarious position, there were two extremes of possibilities. The first, chilling to comprehend, would have found a popular horse and his jockey splayed in front of the dozen horses who trailed them, all before a national television audience. Not pretty.

The second, amazing to comprehend, somehow was realized. Though inches from disaster, Afleet Alex, with jockey Jeremy Rose, righted himself, shook off the incident like he was swatting a horse fly, immediately gathered himself, overtook Scrappy T, and won the race. Every superlative in the dictionary could be used, but for brevity's sake, these two words encapsulate it - remarkable bravery.

http://www.drf.com/news/article/71203.html


Afleet Alex nearly falls as he collides
with Scrappy T in the Preakness, but
he won the race anyway.