The Sport of Kings

You know what I don’t understand, Horse Racing. Not that I don’t understand the sport (we are not going to get into that “what is a sport” argument here, so stop that nonsense before it gets started), I just don’t understand the decline in popularity, then the sudden spurts in popularity. It makes no sense to me.

All experts agree that a Triple Crown winner is needed, but I don’t necessarily subscribe to that theory. In the last 20 years the most popular horse in the world is Barbaro, who nobody had heard of before the Kentucky Derby and then two weeks late broke his leg and never raced again. Since the last Triple Crown winner we have had 10 horses win the first two legs of the Triple Crown but failed to win the third. In two of those instances we had great rivalries, which is what really makes sports.

Think about it, what would Muhammad Ali be without Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes. Nobody really considers the Montreal Canadians of the 60’s ands 70’s all that great, but we revere the Celtics because they had a nemesis in Wilt Chamberlain. In 1978 Affirmed outdistanced Alydar by a total of 2 ½ lengths in the three races.

In 1989 Sunday Silence was stellar horse who beat out Easy Goer in the first two legs of the triple crown but then in the Belmont Easy Goer blew the doors off of Sunday Silence outdistancing him by 8 lengths. Then there was 1998 with Real Quiet and Victory Gallop. Real Quiet won the first two legs but then in the Belmont the horses broke down the stretch nose to nose with Victory Gallop pulling off the upset. During those two seasons horse racing was important, and we can still talk about those races with reverence.

Since then there is always some horse favored to win the Kentucky Derby and then when he doesn’t his owners pull him out of the next two races, never really creating a rivalry buzz. Well after the Barbaro story of last year maybe people are totally done with horse racing. Why is that you ask? Well do you know who won the Kentucky Derby this year? A good looking horse named Street Sense, followed by Hard Spun and Curlin. Now before I could even catch my breathe Street Sense handlers announced he would not race in the other two legs of the Triple Crown. Huh? What? Then the owners of Curlin (who was s Derby favorite) announced he probably wouldn’t run in the last two races either. Well both owners came to their senses and entered both Stallions in the Preakness. So what happened in the Preakness, do you know? Well Curlin and Street Sense hit the home stretch behind a few horses but strengthened down the last furlong and Curlin outreached Street Sense at the finish line.

Wow, here we go, now we’ve got something here don’t we. Ummmm….nope.

For whatever reason nobody was talking about this, why? Honestly, that Sunday night on Sports Center they had a big piece all about the tragic end to Barbaro’s life. We are on the verge of a great rivalry and we are talking about some horse who won one race of consequence. Well in a predictable move the owners of Street Sense again pulled him out of the Belmont.

In the Belmont Curlin ran a solid race and finished in second, but still nobody is talking about him, why not? This horse just finished 3rd, 1st and 2nd in the three Triple Crown races; that is fucking impressive. So at the end the question remains, why? What makes horse racing popular or a horse popular? What did Barbaro do that Street Sense or Curlin not do? Can we every make the Sport of Kings relevant again?