The Triple Crown: U.S. Horse Racing's Most Elusive Prize

In the United States, we have several kinds of horse racing.  The most popular is Thoroughbred racing, often called the Sport of Kings. These races are run on turf (grass) and dirt, as well as on synthetic surfaces, over distances from 6 furlongs (1207 m) to  1-1/2 miles (roughly 2400 m).

Although Thoroughbred racing is a big money game, there are still small breeders out there who hope to beat the odds. Racing is full of "rags to riches" tales. Steve Coburn and Perry Martin are living one of those tales . They call their racing business "Dumb Ass Partners." They are two Californians: one works as a press operator in a plant; the other owns a small lab that tests technology and materials. New to racing, they started as share owners in a syndicate that owned a mare named Love the Chase.

Califronia Chrome: 2014 Derby and Preakness Winner

The mare was undersized and she didn't do well on the track. The syndicate put her up for sale, and Coburn and Martin decided to buy her. She cost them $8000 U.S. After a few more bad races, they retired her from racing and bred her to an apparently unremarkable stallion. The foal that resulted was named California Chrome.

This year, California Chrome has American racing all atwitter: he just might win the Triple Crown of American horse racing this year: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes.

No horse has managed to do this since Affirmed in 1978, though 13 got to the last race, the Belmont, with a chance. Since 1875, when the grueling three-race series began, only 11 horses have claimed the title. What makes it so hard is that the second race is only 2 weeks after the first, and then there's just 3 weeks before the last, and longest, race.

The races are open to any 3-year-old Thoroughbred who qualifies. It doesn't matter if they're colts, fillies or geldings, though the majority to run have been colts.

The first race is the fabled Kentucky Derby, held on the first Saturday in May. It's 1-1/4 miles (2000 m), the farthest most of the young horses have ever been asked to run. The Derby culminates a week of parties and celebrity events; fashion is front and center at Churchill Downs Racetrack in Louisville KY on Derby Day, with trendy hats (and also some that are bizarre). Mint Juleps (a sugared bourbon drink) are the traditional cocktail.

The field is always crowded, making it a difficult race to run. California Chrome won it by 1 and 3/4 lengths.

The second leg of the series is the Preakness Stakes, run at Pimlico Racetrack in Baltimore, MD. The Preakness is the shortest of the races at 1-1/8 miles (1911 m), and its crowd is the most diverse in the series: baseball caps are more likely than fancy hats, and instead of mint juleps, folks are downing beer. The Preakness is run on the third Saturday in May--a tight turnaround for today's racehorses, who tend to be quite lightly raced. Twenty-two horses in all have captured both the Derby and the Preakness (excluding the eleven Triple Crown winners), only to be beaten in the Belmont.

California Chrome won the Preakness by 1-1/2 lengths, holding on against a strong challenge by another top colt, Ride on Curlin.

The Belmont is 1-1/2 miles (2400 m), a distance more common in Europe than in the U.S. For many starters, this will be the only time in their careers they'll be asked to run so far. The race is run at Belmont Park in New York State on a huge race track, on the third Saturday after the Preakness. This gives the horses three weeks to recover from the first two races. For some, it isn't enough time.

To add to the challenge, new starters may be added to the mix, "fresh" racers who didn't go to the Preakness and perhaps skipped the Derby as well. This year's field looks like it will be 11, so to win it, California Chrome will have to beat 10 other horses.

Secretariat, 1973 Triple Crown Winner

He's got some great cheerleaders to cheer him on: Penny Chenery, who owned Secretariat, and the owners of Seattle Slew and Affirmed, the other two Triple Crown winners from the 1970s (1977 and 1978, respectively), will be rooting for the colt. So will a lot of people who enjoy a happy ending to a rags to riches story.

Postscript:  On June 7, a horse named Tonalist ran the fastest at Belmont Park and ended California Chrome's bid for the Triple Crown. (Ironically, Tonalist's dam was a daughter of Pleasant Colony, one of the 13 previous contenders who have sought the crown since 1978, only to lose it on the 1 1/2 mile track.) Chrome finished fourth after suffering a minor injury when he stumbled slightly at the start of the race. Once again, the challenge was too much. But it was a glorious campaign and a good effort from a very good horse.

March Madness in the USA

        March Madness has started!
The second week in March, the championship basketball games among teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) began. A frenzy unlike anything among U.S. sports fans except perhaps football's Super Bowl takes over.  Sports bars are filled with fans; house parties are held all over the country.
This is college (university) basketball. The NCAA presently has 1066 schools actively participating in competition. The schools have both men's and women's teams. Depending on the size of the school, they fall into one of three divisions.
To get to play in the national championship tournament, a team can qualify by winning its regional tournament. Other teams may be selected to compete by a Selection Committee.
The true tournament for Division I, the best-known, began this year on March 20. Between March 20 and March 22, half of the 64 teams (both men's and women's) were eliminated. In Round 2, the remaining 32 teams are cut in half again, leaving the "Sweet 16" to move on in the competition.         After a 4-day break, the battle resumes until the Sweet 16 are cut down to the "Final Four."
The mayhem of March will have ended. Many college teams will hang up their uniforms and lick their wounds. But four men's and four women's teams will survive and the high drama of the final games of the championship will unfold in April.
Now I admit I don't follow basketball at any level. But college ball is a passion for many of my countrymen (and women). I have a cousin who supports every University of Louisville (Kentucky) team. Louisville's teams are called the Cardinals, and in her life, the Cardinals Rule--but when it comes to basketball, loyalty and interest transform into passion. Louisville pretty much always sends its teams to March Madness; last year, the men took their tournament by storm, and the women made it to the final game, though they lost to University of Connecticut.  My cousin's life is on hold for as long as a Cardinal flies across the basketball courts of the NCAA.

Louisville Cardinals guard Russ Smith (L) drives to the hoop past Wichita State Shockers guard Ron Baker during the second half of their NCAA men's Final Four basketball game in Atlanta, Georgia April 6, 2013.
 (Reuters Photo/Chris Keane)

         So if you should travel to the U.S. between March 20 and April 8--even if only by satellite dish or cable--look in on a sports channel. You'll likely find an authentic cultural celebration: team supporters of college basketball teams, rooting on their favorites. The final games generate huge public parties. The Final Four games for the women will be in Nashville, Tennessee, a center for country music; Nashville will have races and kids' events--and of course, country music performances. The Final Four games for the men will be near Dallas, Texas, complete with a 3 day music festival featuring both country stars like Tim McGraw and rock favorites like Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
         Until then, as the March Madness frenzy plays out, college players will defy gravity to sink baskets. Just watch them fly!
          (More technical information about how the tournament works is at the web site  http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/march-madness.htm  if you want to additional information!)

Questions about Questions

Comparatives and Superlatives

Halloween: Origins

Halloween: Origins “From ghoulies and ghosties And long-leggedy beasties And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!” Traditional Scottish prayer

            

            Most sources agree that Halloween started as a Celtic festival called Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween) in the Celt language. The Celts were spread far and wide, from northwest Spain (Galicia and Astoria) to northern Europe, and from Ireland to Anatolia in the first millennium before Christ. Their spiritual beliefs were tightly bound to the natural world and its cycles. Samhain was their most important festival. It marked both the beginning of winter, when herds were brought in to winter pasture, and the end of the harvest: the end of one annual cycle and the start of the next.

            The Celts believed that in this time of endings and beginnings, around November 1 by our calendar, the boundaries between this world and the otherworld weakened. Spirits of the dead traveled to the otherworld, and so could mingle with the living as they passed. People made sacrifices and lit bonfires to honor them, and also to help them find their way to the otherworld so they would not stay among the living. It was truly the time when “ghoulies and ghosties” were abroad in the darkness.

            Christian missionaries who came to spread the faith to the Celts were instructed by Pope Gregory to turn pagan belief and custom to the service of Christ. One of the ways this was done was to use days sacred to pagan belief for the celebration of church holy days. The church judged Samhain demonic, and its spirits not just dangerous, but malicious, intent on doing harm. The otherworld of the Celts was identified with the Christian Hell. The Church proclaimed this day to instead be celebrated the feast of All Saints. It hoped the Celtic peoples would abandon their pagan gods for the saints.

But ancient beliefs long held are hard to destroy. Some people continued to follow the old ways; they were often accused of witchcraft. The Celts accepted the saints, but the characteristics of the old gods were seen in some saints. The pagan deities themselves, though diminished, survived,  remembered as fairy or leprechaun.

            The powerful symbolism of the wandering dead endured. An abstract feast honoring remote saints needed something more to attract the energy of the old Samhain tradition, so the church established All Souls Day, a time for praying for the souls of the dead, on November 2.

            All Saints is also called All Hallows (hallowed means “sacred” or “holy”), making October 31 Hallows Eve. On Hallows Eve, human and supernatural are likely to meet each other; the wandering dead are about, but the church convinced its followers that the supernatural was evil. The cross was protection, but as insurance, the spirits were bribed with gifts of food and drink to pass and leave people unharmed. The term “All Hallows Eve” itself evolved, becoming first Hallow Evening, and later, Hallowe’en.

CHRISTMAS CARD COMPETITION

QUESTIONS

Here you are an interesting document about questions. It was written by Susan. Thanks again, Susan