THINKING OUT LOUD

 Ellen Parker 

Another “Broken World” Award – We haven’t given out a “Broken World” award (named after the ‘Millennium’ episode in which a horse killed an abusive human) for awhile, and to be honest we wish we never had to give out another.  The last time someone was so ‘honored’ it was the s.o.b. that killed Exceller. 

Now we have a real rare one in Ernie Paragallo, who raced poor, unsound Unbridled’s Song in the Kentucky Derby (for his own glory of course) in an egg-bar shoe and then took the money and ran while the horse has gone on to sire some of the most fragile and brilliant blood since his paternal great-great grandsire Raise a Native.  (The horse was too good for the man, but he has done the breed no favors.)

Paragallo’s latest sin is simply starving his horses to death, the ‘excuse’ being ignorance.  Seems he hadn't visited the farm in nearly a year.  What a prince this one is.  He is now charged with 22 counts of animal cruelty and is banned from racing in the state of New York.  If there is any justice in this world, he will be banned for life from ever owning any animals at all anywhere on earth.  We always did think this guy was a jackass, but being this right pleases us not at all.  There is a nice spot being warmed up for him in the afterlife, an afterlife that we hope finds him in a world where horses rule.

And They Wonder Why Nobody Comes – After reading about Paragallo and watching Eight Belles, Barbaro and other horrors play out; it’s really getting hard to tell people about the glories of racing.  But, we reasoned, at least beautiful Keeneland seemed a bright light in the murky firmament.

Until the Saturday of the Lexington Stakes, that is.  That is the Saturday when yours truly and our adopted daughter Joanne sat in traffic for 2 ½ hours outside the gates of Keeneland while whatever incompetent jerk that was managing crowd projections-control/traffic/parking was obviously out to lunch.

So frustrated were the other people around us that some of them actually got out of their cars, climbed fences at nearby Calumet Farm and were walking through the fields toward the track!  We don’t know if anybody at Calumet caught the trespassers and detained them, but you begin to realize just how out of sorts everybody was getting when you realize the extremes to which we all were driven by this insufferable situation.

Here is the most delightful track in Kentucky with a Derby prep on the card plus another stake, a beautiful spring-like day and plenty of warning that a record crowd would materialize.  Now maybe we are asking too much, but it seems to us that somebody was asleep at the wheel when most patrons could not even get inside the gates to see the show!

We realized, finally, that by the time we got in (if we ever did – we burned almost a half a tank of gas in our Volkswagen to give you some idea of how long we sat), parked and then hiked a mile or so that the feature might already be over.  Why sit any longer?  So we simply removed ourselves from this self-imposed hell, turned around and went to lunch.  If we drank, we’d probably still be at the restaurant.

With racing in serious trouble, every effort should be made to make the racing experience worry-free and enjoyable.  If a lifelong fan like yours truly turns away in frustration, imagine what a first-time racegoer is going to do.  Now maybe this is a one-time thing, but we’re going to go out on a limb here and say it should never have happened at all.

Welcome, Little One  - For all the Pedlines readers who followed the story of Milton Higgins’ lovely Maryland-bred champion Richetta, we’d like to announce the birth of her latest youngster, a filly foal by Not For Love foaled late on April 5 (almost making Round Table’s birthday).  We are attaching a photo Milton sent to mark the moment.

Richetta and her new daughter have likely already arrived in Kentucky, where momma will be bred back to Barbaro’s sire, Dynaformer.  We like the filly’s mating better, but where Richetta is concerned, we are cheering on everything she produces; she owns a very large piece of our heart.

 Richetta’s 2009 filly by Not For Love

The “Budapest Bullet”

You know that “Hungarian” horse with the unfortunate name of Overdose that everybody is talking about?  The one who is the second coming of Kincsem?  Not.  Well, he’s actually a British-bred by the Northern Dancer-line Starborough (GB) – direct male descent Nureyev-Soviet Star-Starborough.  He has names like American Broodmares of the Year Anne Campbell and Slightly Dangerous in his four-cross and is out of a Warning (by Man o’ War-line Known Fact) mare, second dam by a Mill Reef son named Main Reef. 

His sire is tail-male to Reine-de-Course Colosseum; his tail-female line is that of Mowerina, the family of such worthies as Al Hattab.

He may wear the Hungarian flag for silks, have a trainer named Sandor Ribarszki and an owner named Zoltan Mikoczy and have the folks there all excited, but this is a English lad, folks, with an American background and some French blood for flavor.  What is crazy is that the horse cost $3,000 and the owner has reportedly turned down $6.5 million. 

However, it is kind of fun that a horse who was a throw-away at a major sale (Newmarket) is making the rest of Europe blush.  (He is 12-for-12 as of this writing).  In the land of many consonants, this is great fun.  And while we’re thinking about it, have we ever had a Hungarian horse run in the Breeders’ Cup?

The Blood Never Sleeps Department

It is always gratifying to see that a great sire is breeding on and Sunday Silence has never given us reason to doubt him.  We knew from the moment we laid eyes on him that he owned true greatness.

So it was with real pleasure that we noted his grandson =Unrivaled (JPN) by son =Neo Universe won the Japanese 2000 Guineas on April 19.  Sunday’s influence did not stop with the winner.  Runnerup =Triumph March (JPN) is by his son Special Week and third-place finisher =Seiun Wonder (JPN), a son of Grass Wonder (by Silver Hawk) is out of a Sunday Silence mare.

As thrilling as this result was for those of us who keep track of Sunday’s bloodline, nothing could match the magic of seeing Hat Trick (JPN) in person at Walmac Farm this month.  We had seen him when he first arrived and he seems to grow ever more beautiful as he settles into his new home.

We spoke to him at length, ever aware of the fire that burns just below the surface.  And he listened to us as only a handful besides him, horses with names like Round Table and Dahlia and Brown Bess – champions all – have done before.  We told him of his heritage and his legacy and he seemed to understand us.  It was one of those moments when time stands still and only the horse and the person in question matter; when a unique meeting of minds between man (or woman) and beast make them one entity.  It is a moment we are unlikely to forget any time soon.

Reines In The News

There is no finer honor for a Reine-de-Course than being the taproot for the latest Broodmare of the Year.  We will cover this subject in more depth in the next Pedlines, as we do every year.  But for now, hats off to Zenyatta’s dam Vertigineux, a tail-female descendent of Reine-de-Course Legendra.  Zenyatta alone makes her worthy of the honor.

The World’s Gone Mad Department

You know the whole thing is circling the drain when the winner of the world’s most famous steeplechase, The Aintree Grand National, a 4 ½ mile race, is won by a 100-1 shot who is tail-male to Northern Dancer and traces to the same female line (Bodicea) as Native Dancer’s sire, Polynesian.  We give up.