The Triple Crown

When I was a little girl, I was in love with horses.  I would read this fictional book series called "Thoroughbred" and the books were all about raising, training and racing Thoroughbred horses.  I was in third grade, maybe fourth grade when I started reading the series and I couldn't put the books down.  Thank goodness the author kept writing more!

Now that I'm older, I look forward to watching the horse races every year.  More specifically, I love to watch the Triple Crown races.  This year, California Chrome became my favorite to win, right along with a lot of other viewers.  When Chrome won the Preakness, I was convinced that this beautiful Thoroughbred was going to take it all.  The last horse to have won the Triple Crown was Affirmed in 1978.

Unfortunately, Chrome fell short.  I was devastated, but I quickly moved onto the next thing on my to do list.  But California Chrome's owner obviously took it harder.  When he should've taken the high road and kept comments to himself, Steve Coburn started to speak his mind saying that the same horses should only be allowed to race in the Triple Crown races.  Coburn said that training for and racing the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes is such wear and tear on the horses that it is unfair to them to put in a freshly trained, hardly worked horse into one of the races.

I see where Coburn is coming from, it does make sense.  But the whole beauty of the Triple Crown and winning the Triple Crown is overcoming all of the challenges the races bring.  Winning the Crown is prestigious because the horses that have won are fit enough to run faster than those horses that haven't raced in one or two legs of the Crown.

Coburn has a right to speak his mind, but I think he could have handled his loss with better sportsmanship than he did.  The winner of the Belmont Stakes, Tonalist, had a fantastic race and it's a shame that this scandal has overtook the Tonalist's spotlight.

I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.  Maybe you'll have the right horse next year, Steve Coburn.