The Kentucky Derby

Yesterday was derby day, and it was great... Barbaro certainly is an amazing horse. I've got an article from the Washington Post that covers the derby pretty well, so I'll post it here.


Barbaro Breaks Away
Prado Rides Undefeated Colt to Victory by 61/2 Lengths, the Largest Margin in 60 Years

By John Scheinman
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, May 7, 2006; Page E01


LOUISVILLE, May 6 -- Throughout the Kentucky Derby prep races, jockey Edgar Prado kept his options open regarding who he might ride in the big race. Even after he guided Barbaro to victory in the Florida Derby, Prado said he thought the undefeated colt was a better runner on turf than dirt.

On Saturday, Prado found out Barbaro just might be better on dirt after all. Much better.

Galloping like a powerful machine on the far turn, Barbaro pulled away from one of the deepest Kentucky Derby fields in years, winning America's signature horse race by 6 1/2 lengths, the largest margin since Assault's win in 1946.

Tracking leaders Keyed Entry and Sinister Minister after a brief stumble at the start, Barbaro moved easily to the front when those horses tired at the five-sixteenths pole and effortlessly through the stretch to win in a fast time of 2 minutes 1.36 seconds.

Prado did little more than shake his reins in the stretch as late-running long shots Bluegrass Cat and Steppenwolfer vainly tried to catch up.

Barbaro became the sixth undefeated horse in 132 years to win the Kentucky Derby. For Prado, who rose to stardom in the 1980s riding at Laurel Park and Pimlico, it was his first Derby victory in seven tries.

"I looked back a couple times and saw nobody," Prado said. "The horse up front started dying a little bit. It was just a matter of time before I turned him loose."

Sweetnorthernsaint, the Laurel Park-based horse who received a rush of late betting money to go off as the 5-1 favorite in the field of 20, made a threatening move on the inside on the far turn but lacked his usual power in the stretch and faded to seventh.

Prado rode Barbaro into the winner's circle, pumping his fists at the crowd of 108,065, the second largest in Derby history.

For Barbaro's trainer Michael Matz, 55, who bases most of his horses at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, the victory vindicated his plans from the beginning of Barbaro's campaign.

The colt was bred to be a star grass runner and won the first three races of his career on the turf, including the Laurel Futurity on Nov. 19. But Matz -- a former star equestrian rider who carried the U.S. flag at the Closing Ceremonies of the 1996 Olympics -- believed he had a horse that could win the Kentucky Derby.

He took Barbaro to Florida and won the Holy Bull Stakes over a sloppy track and then the Florida Derby on April 1 by a half-length. After the race, Prado said he still wanted to ride Strong Contender in the Blue Grass Stakes before deciding who to ride in the Kentucky Derby.

Much was made in the weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby of Matz's decision to train Barbaro up to the race off a five-week layoff. No horse had won the Derby off such a long rest since Needles in 1956.

"What can I say?" said a vindicated Matz, the fourth consecutive trainer to win the Derby in his first attempt. "Everybody saw it. They know what he did. We never missed anything in his training. We never wavered on our plan. [Assistant trainer] Peter [Brett] assured me five weeks would not be a problem. There were a lot of good horses today, but it was his race today."

The good horses had trouble keeping up. Keyed Entry, who finished last, broke quickly from the inside and seized the lead from Sinister Minister, the fastest of three runners from the barn of Bob Baffert, and ran through the first half-mile in a sizzling 46.07 seconds.

As the exhausted front-runners fell away on the turn and Barbaro attacked, only Sweetnorthernsaint and Bluegrass Cat made significant challenges to win. Lawyer Ron, who had won six straight races, faded to 12th. The other two Baffert runners, Point Determined and Bob and John, finished ninth and 17th, respectively. Brother Derek, the early consensus favorite, raced wide on both turns and wound up in a dead heat with Jazil for fourth place.

Bluegrass Cat, a forgotten colt who once had been considered among the top 3-year-olds in the country, rebounded from his dismal 21 1/4 -length loss in the Blue Grass Stakes, his final prep for the Derby.

Barbaro is raced by his breeders, Roy and Gretchen Jackson of West Grove, Pa., and the couple had a tremendous day. Besides winning the Derby with Barbaro and finishing sixth with their other entrant, Showing Up, the couple bred the European champion colt George Washington, who earlier in the day won the historic Two Thousand Guineas Stakes at Newmarket in England.

Gretchen Jackson said she had wanted to win the Kentucky Derby since she was a little girl.

"I've personally thought about the Kentucky Derby since Whirlaway [won in 1941]," she said. "As a little girl, I had a picture book about Whirlaway that I just loved, so this is a dream come true." -WP

It was fun to watch. I was up at the farm when it came on, and John and Mary (some of Dean's friends and nice people) came over to watch as well. We all had our bets, but none of us picked the winner. Mary did pick Bluegrass Cat, the longshot, to win; well, the Cat got second, and that's close enough.

Today my sister and I are going back up to Dean's; his friends from Phucket, Cliff and his girlfriend Noi, are supposed to be coming in from Europe today, so it should be good to meet them; I hope to meet them, anyway. They were originally supposed to arrive yesterday, but Dean thinks that Cliff may have gotten it wrong with the time difference when he spoke to him.

I'll write more later.


"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming:
WOW--What a Ride!" -anonymous

The Rain... Alive.

Where do we go now?
Hazy clouds seem to blur the path, so not even I know.
All that I know is stumbling-slipping-tumbling-sliding
Down towards the ground.
That is our destination, is it not?
Fate leads us, sometimes by the hand or kicked along, to one place.

Just when we feel in control-

We smack into one side of a catastrophe.

Lost.

Confused.

And still falling.

Do we stop to ask why?

Nothing comes of speculation,

Because for all the meticulous collection and analyzation,

We always seem to come up-

Short.

Dissatisfaction pulsing through aching and, inevitably,

Young minds.

The best choice, seemingly, is to let things be, to simply fall...

But what a wondrous thing...

To fly through the air.

Why should all things be in despair?

Letting the breeze dash you past trees,

To come and rest gently on their leaves,

Until again you are left breathless by another swift gust,

Sweeping by the tallest castles and fountains,

Imaginary princesses and knights and dragons filling your mind,

Passing through dream after dream until you finally see,

Yes.

This is what everything is about;

This is how it's meant to be.

I am alive.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. -unknown author

A beautiful day

Today was another great day; the weather was sunny and pleasantly warm all day, with a slight breeze picking up later in the evening. I went out with my mom and dad to Dean's place, where Adrianna was staying for the weekend. She had a lesson today around 1 in the afternoon with a good trainer named BJ. Adrianna and Jack had a good lesson, Jack worked hard and I think BJ and Adrianna were both pleased. Afterwards, I soothed my hunger with something from Anne's kitchen (she always has something good to eat, haha... there is no shortage of good things there).

I went for a ride later with my dad, him riding Spicy and myself riding Dean's mule, Scooter. Scooter is a good, sound animal; she's really push-button broke, and I had a good ride on her. My dad took the camera up on top, so I've got a few pictures to show:

Here's some of when we got back:

Here's Adrianna on the tractor, doing the routine work:

My mom took me home while my dad and Adrianna stayed, and my mom told me she had been working a bit in the backyard. Our backyard really is something else, because it has great potential to be beautiful, yet it is completely overgrown. You can see where there are concrete steps leading down into a sort of "haven", yet to get there you have to somehow wend your way through thick blackberry vines and through the branches of trees weighted down with branches. Anyway, she told me that she'd been clearing away some of the weeds and had lain down some bark underneath one of our old, tall evergreen trees. An old-fashioned bench sits there, and I believe she is clearing the weeds away from there with the partial intent of giving me a place to write, and for this I'm thankful; I've been yearning for somewhere to go write that isn't in the confines of a building.

I'll have to take some pictures of our yard sometime this week... some of my garden project in the front yard, and some of the overcrowded backyard. It's late though right now, and I have to get up for school tomorrow, so I'll say goodbye for now.

"If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?" -Karen Blixen/Isak Dineson, Out of Africa

Of this and that

I just thought I'd share some lovely pictures of my sister and her horse Jack up at Dean and Anne's thoroughbred ranch in Granite Falls. She went up there the other day, and my dad got some really good shots of her jumping. Isn't Jack flashy? My family all call him Bodacious Jack.

Enough of that for now. I haven't written in a while, so I'll get up to date with what's been taking up my time.

Near the end of March, the day after my singing competition, I went out with my mother in the gorgeous weather to meet up with my sister. She was at the ranch already, tending to the horses and doing the chores that she normally does, like helping the ranch hand Eduvides clean stalls and such. Once there, Adrianna told me that Charles, Dean's son and a racehorse trainer, was taking some horses and people up to the tree farm in Arlington, including Adrianna, and she asked if I wanted to go. I went ahead and got my horse Spicy (my Arabian/Saddlebred mix, a pretty 17 yr. old cinnamon-chestnut mare) and we hauled up to the tree farm.

The ride that ensued was absolutely amazing. I did have a bit of trouble with Spicy, because she pulled on the bit a lot (natl. show horses are pretty hot, and Spicy always jigs around, pulling on me to let her extend and trot), and I didn't have a stable seat, because I was using a dressage saddle instead of my standard comfortable western saddle. It was great to go out and ride with everybody though, because I don't get many opportunities to go to the tree farm.

Here's some more pictures so you can see what Spicy looks like:

Poor Spicy. The baby horses in her pastures chewed up her tail a while ago.. it used to drag on the ground, but no more. It'll grow back, eventually.

What else of significance? Well, I can talk about seeing the movie V for Vendetta. Now, THAT is a good movie. I really enjoyed it (I guess that was a given, though, because I'm really into the negative utopia stuff like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451), and Hugo Weaving as V and Natalie Portman as Evey were really good choices. I definitely recommend it.

HOWEVER.

For all you die hard fans of the comic, you may not be as impressed as I was. The message is not the same as it was in the comic, because Alan Moore and David Lloyd's creation portrays the mysterious V as an anarchist. I read the comic after I saw the movie, so it kind of skewed the message that I originally got. Plus, there are quite a few things that they left out, but that's to be expected from a book-to-movie production anyway. But aside from all that, I think the movie was very well done, and I loved it anyway. It's my favorite movie at the moment. My sister believes that this movie would have done better financially if it had come out before The Matrix trilogy, and I agree with her; the storylines have the same kind of idea, even if The Matrix is a little more sci fi.

Because of this movie, and some other events, I have taken up an interest in political science. I just want to become more knowledgeable, so I can escape the strange, twisted version of today's politics that my peers have. Plus, I want to be able to better recognize political bias online and in other places, so that I don't fall into trusting something that isn't credible.

Away from the weighty topics, I've been interested in renovating a garden in my front yard. It's going to be a big project, as it's completely over-grown with weeds, with haphazardly growing roses in the middle, and a muddle of other flowers that are being choked. I've decided I need something else as a focus, something that's relaxing and outside, so that I can soak up a little sunshine and do something productive, for those days that I can't go up to the ranch.

Also, I've been trying to write some more. After my huckleberrying assignment for my english class that involved observing things and people, more specifically school and how I learn, I've been inspired to just keep a journal for just the purpose of observation. I used to do that in seventh grade, but I've lost the habit. I figured some journaling and observation would do me good as a writer, so I went to Barnes and Noble and bought a black, pocket-sized leather-bound notebook. I've already taken some things down, mostly notes, and a random dialogue that I came up with. A good story could come out of it.

Now, let me tell you the strangest thing; the other night, I wrote the dialogue before I went to bed, and then in a sort of semi-conscious haze, I had a 'dream' about my dialogue. Well, not really about the dialogue; it was more like the childhood of the person the dialogue is about. I knew that it was him, the main character, because I kept thinking to myself (my dream was in a third person view) "THAT'S him! That is who the story is about." It was probably the strangest thing I've ever experienced, because I've fallen asleep with more pertinent things on my mind and not thought about them at all. I'm thankful for it really, because it was a great source of insight; I was actually able to see my character vividly, his habits, and his personality. I suppose my muse is trying to take a more active role in my writing, ha. Maybe this means I should be writing more, and live up to the quote at the bottom of my site.

That's pretty much all that's been going on with me. I'll try to get more regular with my posts, because I know that no one likes to come and see the same old posts with no changes.

Oh, and remember: today is Earth Day. Do something that will help to better the environment, your checkbook, and your life. It's not that hard to turn off a light, unplug the TV (I know it's a gorgeous day where I am), unplug your cell phone charger, or simply take a day off from your stresses and take a walk outside. It's just a good idea to keep in mind that we all make an impact on our surroundings, and the little things really do count.

Goodbye for now, I'll write more later on.

"A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having." -V, V for Vendetta

The NATS competition

I just got back from my first singing competition around nine, and it went pretty well. I mean, there were things that could have been a lot better, and I know I could have done better, but being the first solo I've ever done I'm not too disappointed.

The atmosphere, however, was a bit... well, I didn't like it particularly. First of all, the woman at the front desk talked to me like I was about 2 years old when I was registering, and it felt like she didn't want to deal with anyone. That put me off a little. And then, in the room where I performed, there was this weird tension in the air and I got this really interesting vibe from the three judges; like they could tell I was a rookie, or something like that... it was a bit unnerving.

Other than that, I felt pretty relaxed during my performance; I was a little anxious, but compared to my other solo experiences I thought I did rather well. I did go flat or sharp a few times in my first piece, Goodnight my Someone; but I know that was due to air pressure, nothing out of my control; and that was probably due to nerves, because I have performed this piece flawlessly before. Lachen und Weinen, my second piece, went really well, except for again a problem with air pressure that made me go a bit flat. My last piece, however, was kind of sloppy because my accompanist (wonderful woman, and a really talented pianist) got off the music while playing; she lost her place, I think, and I got ahead of her, of course making a mess of that section. But it ended up being okay, because I just kept going and she was able to pick right back up at where I was. I don't really blame her for making that mistake, though, because the music for that piece (Another Hundred People from Stephen Sondheim's musical Company) is ridiculously hard and fast, way beyond anything I would ever dream of trying. Plus, when I photocopied the music for her and sent it to her, the music didn't copy well and when she read it she thought the timing was a quarter note to 116 instead of a half note to 116, so that of course made her think that the piece was really slow paced, like a love song, which it isn't at all... so until we met for the first time two weeks ago to practise it, she had already been playing it for a week or so at a really slow tempo. It was really hard to get us together on the piece, I mean the piano part and the vocal part, so I'm happy about the performance, and I'm glad that it went as well as it did, even if there was a small mistake.

So all in all, it was a very rewarding experience, and I'm sure that the more I compete the more accustomed I'll become to the environment and all that.

Nothing more really to add, so I'll talk more later.

"But then there's a moment like tonight, a profound and transcendent experience, the feeling as if a door has opened, and it's all because of that instrument, that incredible, magical instrument." - Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Mite Makes Right, 1994.

Would you look at that..

This is my blog. I used to have one, but I neglected it, so I just decided to make a new account and a new blog and start all over.

It's a blog for anything really, poetry, musings, journaling, anything. It's a place to rest on the way to search for my Walden.

(I love Thoreau, by the way.)

So join me among the twisting brambles of the huckleberry patch... I hear the ripest lay just beyond our reach.