Each time I post a new article on my Horse Racing Nation blog, I post a notice on this blog. These notices include an excerpt from the beginning of that article and a link to the piece. My latest Horse Racing Nation article is. . .
"Like most horse racing fans, the names of the sport’s all-time greats are engraved in my mind: Secretariat, Man O’ War, Citation, Affirmed, Seattle Slew and various others. Each year, we enjoy a number of brilliant runners but much less often do we witness Thoroughbreds who fall under the distinguished category of “great.” Since I fell in love with horse racing in 2004 when I was eight years old, I have had the pleasure of watching several horses who have earned the honor of being regarded as all-time greats: Zenyatta, Frankel, Black Caviar, Sea the Stars, Wise Dan, Curlin and Rachel Alexandra among them.
But as far as American-based racehorses are concerned, I had not seen a horse that could be considered immortal. I saw this adjective as a thing of the past. I did not believe that I would ever see a horse that would enter this class. Rather, I turned to historical archives of all-time greats like Secretariat, thinking my generation would never see one like him.
I fell in love with horse racing as Smarty Jones was making a Triple Crown bid. Beginning that year, I became enchanted by the Triple Crown. However, also beginning that year, the importance and challenge of the series became increasingly important to me. Year after year, I watched as talented three-year-olds tried and failed to become racing’s twelfth wonder. As the drought that began when Affirmed got his nose in front in the 1978 Belmont grew more extreme, it became progressively unlikely to me that I would ever see a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime.
Then, American Pharoah arrived on the scene. . ."
Click here to read the rest of my newest Horse Racing Nation article.
