I'll Have Another gallops at Pimlico before the Preakness (photo courtesy of Pimlico FB page)
As you all know by now, our hopes have been dashed for yet another year of seeing a Triple Crown Winner. The rest of the world is just finding out what all of us already knew: this is just horses. While there are people who will cast aspersions on Doug O’Neill and there will always be the “what if”, for me there remains the fact that these things just happen. I tried to explain to a non-horsey friend the other day how the roller coaster of owning a performance horse feels, and he thought I was crazy. All I can say, is I’m super bummed, and I’m putting my neck out there and going with the Baffert horse Paynter to pull this one out of the hat. You can watch all the interviews possible here and see the Belmont entry list here. Post time is 6:40 PM.
In other news, here’s a list of people currently kicking some butt in Canada: Alison Springer, Alex Green, Doug Payne, KOC, Liz Millikin, Jon Holling, Hanni Badger, MLM, and Boyd. If you would like a full list of people showing Dressage who’s boss — your Bromont Scores. Cross country commences at 9 am sharp tomorrow and it’s gonna be a doozy! John will have run the length of all the courses at least 20 times by tomorrow night, and will need feeding and watering and probably a piggy-back to his hotel room. [Mandiba’s dressage test from COTH]
My hometown event facility (VA Horse Center) is hosting a huuuuuggggeee Thoroughbred Celebration Show this weekend, which is a really cool program that is excellent for promoting the second careers of these athletes, plus it has awesome prizes!! Pimlico is doing a really similar one next month right in the infield of the track. [Program]
All your other events happening this weekend (most popular event weekend of the year??):
Bramham International [Scores]
Aspen Farms HT [Website] [Scores]
Queeny Park HT [Website] [Scores]
Spring Run HT [Website] [Scores]
Copper Meadows HT [Website] [Scores]
Arrowhead HT [Website] [Scores]
Plantation Field HT [Website] [Scores]
Derbyshire Farms HT [Website]
Valinor Farm HT [Website] [Scores]
Texas Rose Horse Park HT [Website] [Scores]
And here are some great links to distract you from how sad you are that I’ll Have Another isn’t running:
Today is National Helmet Awareness day, which means: ridiculous videos from Smartpak
Riders4Helmets on National Helmet Awareness Day
Man Candy: you know you want to look at this (plus it’s totally about fitness, you guys)
Cast Your Vote: McLain Ward or P-Dutty for US Olympic Committee’s athlete of the month?
Live Broadcast of the USEF Dressage Festival of Champions and Selection Trials for the 2012 Games
(related: Ann Romney’s horse made it onto BuzzFeed with Jan Ebeling)
Check out the Bramham XC course!
All you need to know about Black Caviar (the Zenyatta of Australia)
An Ounce of Prevention [via Chronicle twitter]
Wise words from Denny Emerson [via Horse Collaborative]
Scotland’s Blair Castle will host the 2015 European Eventing Championships
Sharon Hunt Retires Tankers Town
Best of the Blogs: Kristin Schmolze grits her teeth for XC tomorrow at Bromont
Hot on HN: “In My Boots: Life Lessons from McLain Ward”
