Life is the Leading Cause of Death

Not everyone was excited when American Pharoah won the Haskell yesterday in a fashion so easy that he might have been thought to be sleeping walking. Broadcaster Jerry Bailey said he looked like he was on water skis. He did make it look easy. And for him, it was.

I think Juliet Macur of the New York Times might need a rest from covering racing. She's written such a downer of piece today on all that can go wrong in racing that you might expect to be greeted by grief counselors next time you go through the turnstile.

'In a Sport of Beautiful Animals, Ugliness Is Unavoidable' graces the sports page as a 'Sports of the Times' piece. You have to read it all to absorb the dark tone. There's a cloud overhead and every time a horse takes a step the worst lurks behind.

Owner Ahmed Zayat and his entourage is basically accused of being callously greedy in continuing to run Pharoah after securing the Triple Crown. The horse could hurt himself, and be euthanized.

Huh? Well, yes, anything can happen while being in training for races, running races or romping around a paddock waiting to meet the next breeding prospect. In a forward to a collection of obituaries, Pete Hamill slyly reminds us that life is the leading cause of death. My own corollary to that is life is surviving being born.

Ms. Macur should stop going to the races if the thought of horses getting hurt or dying upsets her so. She acknowledges that the game has a good side and a bad side, but the Haskell and those who watched and were happy after the race, were only so thrilled because they don't see the "dark side" and surely were wearing blinders.

Imagine that. A happy crowd of 60,000 plus got home wearing blinders.

They made it look easy.

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