Cats, Horses, and Count Saint Germain

I had an unusual day yesterday, which is why I didn't blog - I was in too many places, doing too many things, for too many people.  At least I was able to see The Blacklist without any problems - but the two shows I watch before that were both interrupted.  At the moment, it's sunny outside with just a few high clouds, and it's about 70 degrees.  I have the window and patio door open, and am sitting comfortably at my desk.  -  Nedi is such a little sweetie!  He was walking along the edge of the fence at the far side of the yard, then paused and looked in the window; I waved and said, "Love you, Nedi!" and he came at a full run across the yard, ran through the door, and then jumped into my lap for love and scratching.  Lovey is curled up asleep in the afghan on the sofa...
   It's less than 12 days to the Breeders Cup races at Santa Anita, and I was sorry to discover that they have dropped the Breeders Cup Marathon - for those thoroughbreds that like to run further than a mile and a quarter on the dirt course.  All of the other races were worth a purse of at least $1 million, but the Marathon purse never went higher than $500,000.  Originally, thoroughbreds were raced at a distance of 4 or 5 miles, and ran in heats, so the winner might run twice, three, or four times in one day to be declared the winner.  Today's American thoroughbreds are bred to run a mile or less.  It's too bad that we have changed the breed so much in the search for a young, blazingly fast horse. Most racing thoroughbreds are retired at the age of three, four, or five.  Most people who watch racing do not realize that a horse or pony does not reach full maturity until they are 8 years of age - I love to watch racing, but I mourn the "ancient days" of racing, when horses began to race at the age of 4 or 5 years, not at 18 months.
   The first day of the two days of Breeders Cup races begins on Friday, 31 October, which is better known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween.  I have been enjoying a wonderful series of books written by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro about the legendary Count Saint Germain.  He appears in history as an alchemist, who seems to know a lot more about the world than his fellows.  He is mentioned in letters and diaries of people in France, England, Germany and Switzerland.  In December 1747, Horace Walpole (the 4th Earl of Orford, an art historian,and Whig politician) wrote, in a letter from London: "The other day they seized an odd man, who goes by the name of Count St Germain.  He has been here these two years,and will not tell who he is,or whence, but professes (two wonderful things, the first) that he does not go by his right name; (and the second) that he never had any dealings with any woman - nay, nor with any succedaneum. He sings, plays on the violin wonderfully, composes, is mad, and not very sensible.  He is called an Italian, a Spaniard, a Pole; a somebody that married a great fortune in Mexico, and ran away with her jewels to Constantinople; a priest, a fiddler, a vast nobleman.  The Prince of Wales has had unsatiated curiosity about him, but in vain.  However, nothing has been made out against him; he is released; and, what convinces me that he is not a gentleman, stays here, and talks of his being taken up for a spy."   In Ms. Yarbro's books, Saint Germain is a vampire - but quite different from Bram Stoker's type of vampire.  I'll be writing more about him, and the Breeders Cup in the next two weeks.....