Saturday, April 25, 2009

One More Race



One week until the Kentucky Derby, and this 19 year old, Joe Talamo, has a very likely chance of winning it. If he does, he's giving 25 % of the money to a children's hospital in his home state Louisiana, where they don't turn anyone away. How can you not be charmed by this guy? (and did I mention he's following me on Twitter?)

I happen to like the horse he's riding too, "I Want Revenge." After I picked myself off the floor when The Pamplemousse fell out of the Derby trail, I looked right to this horse. I'd been really impressed by him in January in a race which was won by one of his main Derby competitors, Pioneerof the Nile. I've been following the horse ever since. The trainer of this horse has a checkered past with substance violations...

Many of the jockeys riding next Saturday in the Kentucky Derby are riding at Hollywood Park today: Joe Talamo, Garrett Gomez, Rafael Bejarano, Mike Smith, Corey Nakatani, Aaron Gryder. That will make it fun to watch and to handicap.

So I can't stay away: off to Hollywood Park!

4 comments:

Linda Davick said...

So how did it go today? That is one cute guy. He's really nice, too?

Sally said...

Seems to me he's doing a decent job of not getting overly excited by himself. He would really help the racing world (which needs all the help it can get) if he won this year. So often the human interest features on the day of the Derby are about terrible diseases that have been overcome or really old guys who have one more shot. I mean it's wonderful that the people have overcome their diseases and the old guys have a shot but it may not be the draw that this sport needs, the way, say, the tv show Jockeys is.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

"...features on the day of the Derby are about terrible diseases that have been overcome or really old guys who have one more shot."

You mean they've turned the Derby into a Very Special Episode?Yeesh.

Sally said...

I don't know what A Very Special Episode is.