Thursday, November 5, 2009

Breeders Cup Weekend

I spent yesterday snuggling and loving my kits, and grieving for Hila. Today I must let Hila go and continue on with my own life. The kits are running in and out this morning - it's in the mid-40s and I have the patio door open. The kits and I swept and scrubbed down the patio yesterday, and I placed a small ceramic bowl for the squirrel peanuts outside. Gimpy's already been stuffing himself there this morning. Today I need to walk Rosie and Remy and remember to pick up my meds at the pharmacy; I'll split the rest of my time between laundry, research, and scrubbing the kitchen area. - The Breeders Cup weekend of million-dollar races starts tomorrow. If you're interested in seeing some of the best race horses in the world, you can watch 3 hours of coverage tomorrow on ESPN2 (which will cover the fillies and mares races, as well as the marathon), from 11:30 to 2:30 EST. Saturday, much of the coverage will be live, with ABC broadcasting from 9:30 to 11 a.m.; ESPN then picks up the coverage with live racing from 11:30 until 3 (again, this is EST hours). I still dislike the fact that the BC has split up the races into boys and girls days; more people will get to the track on Saturday than on Friday, and it seems to me it's a slap-in-the-face against the fillies (and the guys who run the Marathon). I think they should do what they used to do - intermingle the designated "sex and age" races with all the others, so that the girls can have a fair share of the spotlight. Of course, Zenyatta will race against the boys in the Classic on Saturday afternoon for a purse of $5 million, but the majority of races will be same sex. Perhaps that's right, and perhaps not... true, the fillies and mares carry less weight than the guys over the same course (because they are, supposedly, the weaker sex) but then you have to look at the best racing mares in history - Personal Ensign, Ruffian, Lady's Secret, Genuine Risk, and this year, Rachel Alexandra - most of them beat the boys soundly. (And I'm happy to say I saw two of the five named mares race in the BC in person....) Boys get all the glory - good stallions earn extremely high stud fees - but remember, folks, if there weren't mares around, the guys would be worthless!

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