|
|
|
|
|
|
| Preakness offers an example of the fading value of loyalty |
|
|
|
I may be old-fashioned, but I value loyalty above almost all other virtues. The people we invite into our business organization exhibit that characteristic in spades. Perhaps that’s why my dogs are Labradors.
Loyalty, I fear, is becoming somewhat lost today.
In a society of instant gratification, with mantras like “if it feels good, do it,” and “I’m just looking out for No. 1,” its easy to understand how people lose site of a virtue our forbears held in such high esteem. By focusing our attention on the importance of self-esteem, our education system and pop culture psychology have given recent generations an over-inflated sense of devotion to their own self-interest above all things.
It has, after all, been over a quarter century since Mr. Spock wisely taught us “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” You remember that iconic scene from The Wrath of Khan when Leonard Nimoy’s beloved character sacrificed himself to save the rest of the crew on the Enterprise, certainly. Spock knew he had a responsibility to his people to do the right thing in putting himself in harm’s way to save the ship.
This week, unfortunately, we got the perfect display of today’s very opposite paradigm. Thoroughbred horse racing’s Race for the Triple Crown is one of the few ties the average American today has to the horse racing business or lifestyle. Far fewer of us go to the tracks or watch racing events on television aside from the three races that make up the timeless Spring rite of 3-year old passage.
This year, we as spectators got more than our money’s worth in the little gelding Mine That Bird. The 50-1 long shot came into the Kentucky Derby as a footnote; another horse to fill a starting gate in a race intended to go to higher-bred horses with more well-heeled handlers. Originally sold for a mere $9,500 and trained by a pair of New Mexico cowboys, the horse got a rare gift when future Hall of Fame Jockey Calvin Borel came to Louisville horseless.
The fearless Borel had the day prior piloted proclaimed “super-filly” Rachel Alexandra to a crushing 20-length victory in the Kentucky Oakes. The combination of his sensational piloting and Mine That Bird’s insatiable heart created the greatest long-shot come-from-behind victory in the 135-year history of the Run For the Roses. Borel, however, admitted openly that his preference would have been to gallop the Oakes champion filly into the winners’ circle on Derby Day.
And so it came that Calvin Borel blew it.
Presented with perhaps the most compelling potential Triple Crown chase in a generation, Borel abandoned his horse and its handlers only days after his sensational campaign under the Twin Spires of Churchill Downs. When Rachel Alexandra’s new owners decided to enter the filly at Pimlico’s Preakness Stakes, Borel almost immediately broke from the Mine That Bird camp and saddled up once again to the favored super-filly.
In fairness to the lady, I suppose, she is somewhat peerless in the field.
No filly had won the Preakness in 85 years, and only a handful have been successful competing with the stallions of the Triple Crown races. She has her own story to tell, and I mean her no disrespect. Her offspring will doubtless dot the future of the sport.
Calvin Borel, on the other hand, displayed a disappointingly capricious disloyalty in not sticking with Mine That Bird.
While Rachel Alexandra was the 2-1 favorite to win the race, Borel knew he had run the gelding from 30 lengths back in the Derby to a near seven-length victory! This feat notwithstanding, Borel’s decision marked the first time in the history of the sport that a jockey abandoned a Derby-winner prior to Pimlico.
True to form, Mine That Bird ran an amazing race Saturday. Coming from well behind the last colt in the field, Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith flew the Bird literally around the competition, costing himself valuable time and distance, and still came within a length of eclipsing Rachel Alexandra and Calvin Borel. While the filly won the race as expected, one could argue that had Borel piloted the gelding in the fearless manner he had in Louisville, the result in Baltimore would have been much different.
Borel may very well end up winning the three races of the Triple Crown, and yet the Crown is awarded to a horse, not to a jockey. By his willful disloyalty to Mine That Bird and his handlers, Borel may have denied the sport’s greatest prize to each of us … and himself.
The Belmont Stakes is only weeks away. I know whom I’ll be rooting for in New York. |
| 5/20/2009 |
|
|
