The first race I can remember watching live on TV was the 1989 Kentucky Derby, won by Sunday Silence.
I had grown up around horse racing. My grandfather attended the races at Thistledown daily, and I remember tagging along as early as four years of age. I remember making my first bet (via my mother) at Wheeling Downs (a greyhound track-turned-racino in Wheeling, West Virginia) in August 1986. I remember watching Thoroughbred, Standardbred, and greyhound races through the 1980s but for whatever reason the first race I remember watching on TV was at the end of the decade. I have no recollection of Winning Colors, Alysheba, Ferdinand, or any classic winners from that era or before.
I don't remember that first Derby having any particular effect on me, but I do remember that I tuned in for the Preakness Stakes two weeks later, and I remember thinking the race was really something special. I remember some talk of Sunday Silence trying to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. I remember asking my grandfather all sorts of questions about it.
What I don't remember is that year's Belmont Stakes, and that's a shame because I've lived those 20 years since failing to understand what all the fuss is about.
To my untrained, Ohio-bred eye, I look at the PPs and see a horse beating his rival on his home track going a distance he clearly preferred (though to Easy Goer's credit, he excelled at all distances, was a brilliant miler, etc.). The best thing I ever read about the Sunday Silence-Easy Goer rivalry was that when Easy Goer won the Belmont he "tied the series at 2-1." I never understood why in that instance one Belmont Stakes was greater than a Derby plus a Preakness, but that was certainly the approach Easy Goer fans took.
It's practically an annual rite of spring turning to summer to read all the Easy Goer sympathizers make excuses for their horse, who won a battle but didn't win the war (Pat Day wasn't the right jock for him, his running style compromised his chances, etc.)
I wish I remembered more about that year's Belmont because then maybe I wouldn't be so ignorant as to why Easy Goer had this effect on people. I mean, New Yorkers are a proud people, but you read these accounts of race fans at Belmont that day, and it's like they needed Easy Goer to win to justify their existence.
I get that his Gotham was impressive and that he beat older horses and that he was trained by a true great in the industry. I just don't get the undying refusal to accept that Sunday Silence was the better horse most of the time. The Belmont win was huge and sweet vindication for sure, but winning the battle never makes up for losing the war does it?
Thanks to Teresa Genaro for inspiring this post. You can read her Easy Goer posts at BrooklynBackstretch and BelmontStakes.com.
I didn't get it, either, which is why I asked my brother to talk about it, and then when I read Crist's piece about Easy Goer's death, I wanted to hear what he thought, too--Easy Goer inspired a lot of passion in people from whom I generally don't expect it.
ReplyDeleteI guess for those two, and for Ernie Munick, who commented on the Belmontstakes.com post, it wasn't about who was the better horse--it was about seeing their favorite horse finally beat his nemesis, and seeing him doing at home, an accomplishment made all the sweeter because he was finally able to do what they'd always thought he could.
What has surprised me is how quickly the non-Easy Goer contingent makes "the better horse" idea the focus, something that, perhaps for obvious reasons, the Easy Goer fans I've talked to don't see as the point.
Always glad to provide a point of view that other people feel compelled to argue against. ;)
Easy Goer broke my little nine year old heart in '89 when he won the Belmont. But that Triple Crown series got me hooked on racing, so no hard feelings against Easy Goer. I've been waiting for a Triple Crown ever since, and the little girl in me still has a thing for the late, great hearthrob of a black stallion that was Sunday Silence.
ReplyDeleteI was an Easy Goer Fan and I even got to visit him on the farm before he died way too young. I think the reason alot of folk loved him was that they saw his sire in him Alydar, who was second best to Affirmed many times. When Easy Goer won the Belmont, to many it was Alydar beating Affirmed in the Belmont. Finally redemption!
ReplyDeleteWell, let me provide some perspective (since I do remember watching the races from Alysheba and thereafter.
ReplyDeleteSometimes in horseracing, the better horse does not win. I'm sure everyone agrees with that.
Rarer, a better horse may not win in more than one race. And that's what happened in EG vs SS. To be fair, SS was better at Churchill that muddy day. All other days, EG was better but had bad luck/riding.
As to the Belmont, if you watch the race again, EG broke from the inside post and probably lost 15 meters by trying to run the oval clockwise shortly after the start.
But SS was a very good horse. One of the best actually.