Dark Mirage was one of the most accomplished race horses of the era. She won what was concocted by the New York Racing Association as the Filly Triple Crown in 1968, which consisted of the Acorn, the Mother Goose and the Coaching Club American Oaks, all run at Belmont. The series was for three-year-old fillies. Each was an increase in distance from the prior race, with the Coaching Club race run at a mile and a half, the same distance as the Belmont Stakes for three-year-old colts.
Apparently it was customary to bury the heart of a cherished horse. So consider how cherished Ruffian was when the whole horse was buried in the infield at Belmont after she was euthanized in 1975, never recovering from the leg fracture she sustained in the famous Foolish Please-Ruffian match race in July 1975 at Belmont Park. If you know where to look, the grave site is visible, marked by a semi-circle of flowers.
So consider this post-Halloween story coming out of Bucharest, Romania where the heart of their Queen Marie (d. 1938) was moved from the National History Museum to the actual room in the castle where the Queen died.
The lede of the story as written by Kit Gillet of the New York Times, first describes Russian exhumations of Czars for DNA testing, and the finding and removal of Britain's King Richard III's bones from under a parking lot. The removal of the Queen's heart from the museum to its next resting place via a military pageant parade with the heart in a Romanian flag-draped box the size of a Fed-Ex package is described as "less macabre" than the above.
Less macabre? What's not macabre in the first place about holding onto just the heart, even if it was the Queen's wish? Was it Valentine's Day or something when all this went down? Was Queen Marie really a vampire? After all, Transylvania, the home of Dracula, is in Romania.
Where is the rest of the Queen? Is some reality show hosted by Geraldo Rivera going to come to us from Romania showing us the search for the rest of the Queen's body? Cable will show anything. So will Barbara Walters.
Queen Marie's heart was apparently first in a chapel in Balchik, a town that at the time was part of Romania, but later became part of Bulgaria. When the boundaries shifted, the heart was moved to the National History Museum in 1971. The Queen's ancestors always wanted the heart in a place more associated with the Royal family, thus the move to Pelisor Castle and to the room where the Queen "drew her final breath."
Outside of horses, I really don't think we culturally have anything to compare to the movement of the Queen's heart. My grandmother's gall bladder was once preserved in a jar of formaldehyde on a hutch in the dining room, but my grandmother was breathing at the time of this display, and lived for many years after its extraction. Why the gall bladder was on display was always a complete mystery to me, and there are few left to ask whose answer might be considered reliable
The singer Tony Bennett made the song 'I Left My Heart in San Fransico' famous. The song in turn made Tony famous. Mr. Bennett is still with us, still singing about where he left his metaphorical, not actual heart.
Given all the movement of the Queen's heart it is at least reassuring that the heart remains in Romania. No need to change any of the signs.
http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment