The horse racing world needed a hero. Thirty-seven years passed since 18-year-old Steve Cauthen rode Affirmed to the Triple Crown. Trainer Bob Baffert, who had come so close, winning the first two legs with Silver Charm in 1997 and Real Quiet in 1998, saddled American Pharoah in 2015 and the colt became the hero the sport needed, winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes in dominating fashion.
Horse racing saw a resurgence, including another Triple Crown winner, Justify, also trained by Baffert, in 2018. American sports fans are learning once again that there are many reasons to watch thoroughbred racing and just as many ways to appreciate the three jewels in the Triple Crown, each one a greater distance than the last.
While the races themselves are the main draw, there are many other reasons to either attend or tune in. First: people-watching. They are among the most fashion-forward of any sporting event each year. Ladies dazzle in their finery, caparisoned in a motley of patterns and frills, topped by a catalog of hats, from the floppiest of floral-adorned sun brims to the most intricate millineries and tiniest fascinators. And men do their natty best to keep up. For those who enjoy a pageant, these race days provide a wonderful opportunity to soak in the scenery.
Then there are the drinks. Each race has a designated cocktail. Why not invite some friends over and try your hand at race-day mixology? Grab your best muddler and favorite bourbon and enjoy a mint julep, black-eyed-Susan, or Belmont Jewel.
Horse racing also offers some incredible stories of struggle and triumph. Seemingly half of America cheered on Rosie Napravnik in a number of Triple Crown races, hoping to see the first female jockey take home a Crown Jewel.
Richard Mandella, 68, trainer for top horse Omaha Beach, will be shooting for his first ever Kentucky Derby win this year. Will it be possible for his first Derby winner to win the Triple Crown?
And special horses bring special people together. Dean Reeves, owner of Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, talked about the team he put together around Mucho Macho Man, a miraculous stillborn foal nicknamed “Lazarus” who, after minutes of desperate effort, was revived. He then opened his eyes, took off running, and never looked back.
His team included, among others, a stable manager in recovery, a trainer who used her love of the sport to recover from a heart transplant operation, and Gary Stevens, a longtime jockey who overcame several serious riding accidents and fought through the pain of a knee replacement to guide Mucho to a third-place finish in Kentucky and a subsequent career of distinguished wins, including the pinnacle of the sport, the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Reeves said, “It was all about the horse. Everybody was so dedicated to this horse. He just had a presence about him. … You spend so much time trying to get that dream again and find another horse like that, and most likely never will.”
Picking a horse as a fan and picking a horse as an owner can be a completely different thing. I asked Reeves how he does both.
As a horse owner, he’ll start with the bloodlines. Often his interest is piqued when the lines include a mare named Primal Force on the dam’s, or mother’s, side, which has produced a number of well-known champions, such as Mucho Macho Man, Macho Uno, Awesome Again, and Ghostzapper.
But on occasion, he’ll take the sage advice of his wife, Patti, and just go with his gut. “It’s like when you first saw your wife, you just said to yourself, ‘Man, I’ve got to go talk to her.’”
For the uninitiated, he said, “Just pick a horse. Find a name you like or some racing silks that catch your fancy and cheer for them. If you have a little more time, go back and look at the history of the horses and see how they got to the Kentucky Derby and cheer for their story.”
Once a fan gets a bit more advanced, they can better appreciate how races unfold. “Watch how some of the horses get to the front … how others get into certain positions … how jockeys help the horses relax on the back side,” meaning before they take the final turn into the stretch. Horse racing is often a chess match of sorts, where the pace of a race can either set up an early runner to wire the field, as Maximum Security did in this year’s Florida Derby, or help a deep closer such as Haikal come from what seemed like another zip code entirely to win the Gotham Stakes.
In all cases, watching a dramatic finish to a race is its own reward. And if some winnings happen to come along with it, especially when the odds are a long shot, that reward can maybe even buy you a nice sweater.
No matter how you choose to enjoy the Triple Crown races this year, certainly take a moment to marvel at and cheer for the majesty of these huge bodies stretching out in space, and admire the warrior’s heart that drives each horse toward the finish line.
Or, as my then-two-year-old son so succinctly put it when he watched his first Kentucky Derby, “Go, horsey, go!”
Dana Burleson is a media professional and thoroughbred enthusiast living in New Jersey.
