Sean Clancy of ST Publishing wrote this wonderful blog about the highs and lows of horse racing. Sean is a longtime friend of WPT and as you can see below an absolute fanatic about the game. We think you’ll enjoy….
Sean Clancy of ST Publishing wrote this wonderful blog about the highs and lows of horse racing. Sean is a longtime friend of WPT and as you can see below an absolute fanatic about the game. We think you’ll enjoy….
Hate our game? I love our game. I love it for the madness. For the unknown. For the highs and lows. I love it because out of all us experts, from all the analysis, from all the concocting and conjecture, nobody could come up with this scenario. I’ll Have Another scratched Friday afternoon, the day before his attempt at ending the Triple Crown drought. Some game.
I didn’t like the way he galloped Wednesday and Thursday; just not the same style or flourish as he exuded before the Derby and Preakness. Looked like a tired horse on tired wheels. Sound, sure. Spent, probably. I didn’t think he would scratch, didn’t predict he had a tendon, didn’t fathom it would all be over this soon, this fast. Tendonitis. Non-definition. Bowed tendon, in any parlance. He’s finished, retired, suddenly a footnote. Like it or hate it, in this game, it’s on to the next one. Next race, next star. I’m glad it was discovered Friday and not at 6:41 on Saturday.
As trainer Doug O’Neill said, “It’s a bummer.” Yeah, that’s it, a bummer. The big horse has left the building. Off to another career, another chapter. He went from being the horse who would save horse racing (blah, blah, blah) to another 2-for-3 stallion prospect, wedged somewhere between Point Given and Real Quiet.
It was a good ride. Five weeks, short a day.
Horse racing is the ultimate Indian giver. It gives, then it takes. It gives, then it takes. It gave us I’ll Have Another, his across-the-tracks jockey, his likable but divisive trainer and the rest of an eclectic team who enjoyed the ride. Then it took them away. Boom, without warning, without salve, without apology. Over and done.
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