The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Horsefeathers

6.10.08 @ 12:01AM

IT JUST DIDN'T HAPPEN
Re: Philip Klein's Small Brown:

My father has been a thoroughbred trainer since 1947, and he told me that the single greatest defect of each and every system of predicting winners is this:

The experts all know how it's supposed to come out, but nobody ever tells the horse.
-- Martin Owens
Sacramento, California

Have you ever gone for a long walk or jog on a dry, cool day? Have you then done it on a very hot, humid day? The air that you are inhaling on a hot, humid day is much less invigorating than when weather conditions are ideal. It can give you the sensation that your lungs are being seared by the hot air, so imagine what a horse must experience when he is running full speed in these conditions.

I think that the mile and half distance, the 93 degree humidity, and the fact that this colt had raced three times in a span of five weeks, all contributed to the fact that he just didn't have it on this particular race day.

I too was looking forward to a Triple Crown winner, but the conditions prevailed, and it just didn't happen.
-- Harold T. Carstensen
San Antonio, Texas

Big Brown's crash and burn kinda reminds me of another "horse race" with a pre-anointed winner -- according to the "experts." With any "luck," history could repeat itself.
-- Arnold Ahlert
Boca Raton, Florida

Perhaps I watched a different race.

Not only did Philip Klein place the loss on Big Brown's lack of stamina, the son of the owner of Affirmed did the same -- with three examples.

In the race I watched (admittedly on television, which could explain the discrepancy), Big Brown seemed to come out of the gate in last place and ended up there at the end.

In order to accept the notion that he lost because of a lack of stamina, I have to accept that that lack of stamina manifested itself in the first 50 yards.

Or whatever 50 yards translates into when measuring the distance of a horse race -- 50-love, or something like that.
-- A. C. Santore

As the old saying goes, "The only cinch is on a saddle."
-- Tom Bullock
West Covina, California

RETURN OF THE CLINTONS
Re: W. James Antle III's The Party's Over :

My concern is that, like the plagues of old, the Clintons will reoccur.

Letter to the Editor

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