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| Magical Flower and Satwa Sunrise at canter |
It's race day at Lyon-Parilly for Magic. She'll be wearing the number 10 and the start for her race, the Prix de Pont de Vivaux, is at 4:10 pm. Right now, she's in the van, on her way down the A6 from Maisons-Laffitte to Lyon, with her trainer, Gina Rarick, the only American woman trainer working in France. The jockey, Frédéric Spanu, is already there. He'll be racing the number 10 Chopouest, given 20/1 as an outsider against the favorite Kolokol at 5.6/1, in the Prix la Flèche, the third race of the day. Today is the first time ever that I will watch a race and know the horse and her trainer.
I am learning. Like with anything, there is a lot to know about racing and each particular horse before one can open one's mouth and say anything pertinent, let alone intelligent. If I had more time, I'd look up every horse in the field, a big one with 20 starting, but I'll start with Magic and the race favorite, Galixi, a 6-year-old mare from the stables of Jehan Bertran de Balanda.
Magic is a 3-year-old filly by Oasis Dream out of Fancy Rose. Oasis Dream is one of the best stallions in Europe. She has her chance. Geny.com likes her overall, but at small stakes. She placed 5th at Argentan in early October, in a slightly longer race on about the same track conditions as the last report for Parilly's grass gallop track. Her trainer hoped for a little more training time, but Magic didn't get scratched like she expected she would, and off they go.
She's currently at 23/1 at the PMU, but I am not giving up on her. She's young, racing her second year, and in her 12 races to Galixi's 62 she has 5 places, while Galixi has 8 wins and 27 places in her 5-year career, but there's always a first time. Magic's a beginner with promise, learning her trade, next to Galixi's glory.
I have organized my day around this event (and my back, which I threw out again last week), even though she is neither my horse, nor a horse in whom I have as much as "a leg". But I know her, and I know her trainer and her exercise jockey, Agatha, and that's just as much.
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| Magic |
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4 commentaires:
I hope that Magical Flower did well yesterday. I've been having a lot of memories revived. Do you remember Steve Cauthen, the youngest jockey to win the Triple Crown at the tender age of 18, aboard Affirmed in 1978. He was the son of a KY horse trainer and farrier who at 17 was voted Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. Here's an interesting video collage about the Affirmed/Alydar rivalry in '77 and '78. Cauthen and Alydar's jockey Jorge Velasquez are featured here. I think Cauthen retired early due to "burn out."
http://www.vuvox.com/collage/detail/075ce50d4?item=2251
Ah, non, elle n'a pas placée. Tant pis.
She had a slight cough recently, and she wasn't really ready for this race, but since she was eliminated from the lists, off she went to try her out. She held with the leaders until the surge just before the end of the 2200 meter race, and then, her trainer emailed me, and told me she sort of said, "well, go ahead then, if it means that much to you...".
She plans to race her in longer races since she didn't even break a sweat and can run all day at that pace. Put her out front and ask her to stay there, please.
Next race for one of her horses coming up soon in December!
I do remember Steve Cauthen and Affirmed. I didn't follow very closely, once I finished the Black Stallion series and realized I would never be an Alec Ramsey, but I did follow the big stories like those. I have to get "Seabiscuit" for my stepdaughter.
Sorry, that was "since she wasn't eliminated".
The favorite didn't place either.
And the terrain was called "pénible" by the commentators. The 8-year-olds won the first four places, with a 5-year old placing 5th.
"Seabiscuit" is a great movie! There will be other days for Magic. I, too, hate being on terre pénible. I do better on terre downhill.
I haven't read the Black Stallion series... only Black Beauty at around 9 or 10. I watched on TV bunches of the old matinée westerns with such heroes as Johnny Mack Brown, Sunset Carson, Hopalong Cassity, etc. My dream to have pony, or even a burro, were thwarted by this and that fate. The Sears catalog had them all, complete with saddles and bridles so I looked at the pictures and wished. It wasn't until I was 16 that I had a full-sized horse that I could call my own as long as I worked for the McClain family. Blaze and I were pals until I was 21. Here's a neat link about Fury, a Saturday morning TV serial that ran from 1955-60. We all watched it. Peter Graves was the adult star. All the humans seemed to be single and asexual. Only the black horse that was smarter than the humans had girl friends that he met behind the barn or out on the range somers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TaeV7-4kXs
It's rough cutting one's teeth on a branding iron.
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