Well we made it- 2010! It is hard to believe that a full decade has passed and it seems like only yesterday that we were turning the calendar from 1999 to 2000, introducing us to Y2K, which many thought would be the electronic equivalent of the El Niño and there would be nasty surprises around the globe. Fortunately the Y2K bug was averted and when the clock struck midnight on Janauary 1st, 2000, no major problems were reported, as most companies around the world spent billions of dollars to look for the Y2K bug and fix it. As a result, almost every bank worked fine, no major power outages were reported, airplanes still flew and the whole world went on with its normal life. Racing too!
The past decade served as an introduction to many memorable racing performances, some spectacular, others not so. Some were even tinged with sadness, as this writer remembers the magnificant performance by Barbaro in the 2006 Kentucky Derby, and the heart wrenching breakdown by the colt in the Preakness Stakes two weeks later. Then there was the awe inspiring open length victory by Big Brown winning the 2008 Kentucky Derby only to have this performance overshadowed by the fatal breakdown of the filly Eight Belles as she crossed the finish line in the same race.
Many great racing celebrities, both equine and human, graced our racetracks over the past 10 years, and if we were not fortunate enough to be at the track, their performances were highlighted on the televisions, through the magic of simulcasting. This past decade, we had the pleasure to be introduced to jockeys by the name of Gomez, Dominguez, Desormeaux, and one simply referred to as ‘JR’. We witnessed a 50-1 shot win last years Kentucky Derby, and a man named Frankel, who in the year 2000, began a run of four consecutive Eclipse Awards for training. Unfortunately, the racing industry is a little sadder, as we also lost Bobby Frankel last November. And finally, the past decade could have been called ‘the decade for the ladies’ with the racing performances of Rags To Riches, Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta, Vodka, and the training performance by one Linda Rice, who in 2009, became the first woman to win a trainer’s title at Saratoga. And at the same time, Canadian race fans were introduced to a ‘racing beauty’ by the name of Chantal Sutherland, whose ‘Vogue model’ looks and talented riding skills, were parlayed into endorsement agreements, and a regular role on the Animal Planet network show, Jockeys.
Other news and newsmakers over the past decade included Hialeah Park in Florida, shuttered as a Thoroughbred operation in 2001, it reopened in 2009 with a Quarter Horse meet, while Churchill Downs, in an effort to boost on track handle, installed lights and introduced night racing over three evenings last year. Close to 90,000 people attended The past decade also saw the introduction of corporations coming to the realization that the horse racing industry is too large to ignore, and lended their names to races like the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and Florida Derby, just to name a few. And racetracks took on a new look, as in many cases traditional dirt tracks were replaced with synthetic or ‘poly’.
For this scribe, the past decade was full of many racing highlights. I attended my first Breeders’ Cup in 2002 at Arlington Park, and touted everyone who would listen, on a 43-1 shot by the name of Volponi in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. You could say that the tale could be considered bittersweet though, as my glee in cashing a pick three ticket, and an exactor on the $89 winner, who I keyed in the pick, and on top in the exactor by the way, turned to grief, when I received a quick lesson on how the US IRS system works. My winning tickets were lightened by a ‘cool’ 32 per cent which didn’t seem fair, I thought to myself, but that’s the rules. Still,I remember the race like it was yesterday. Yes, the past decade has just flown by!
Date:
Jan/Feb 2010