Good stories, racing, and its flip side. For this entry, I have a hodgepodge of feel good stories.
In case you missed this, visit ESPN's My Wish page and under the video headline, choose My Wish:Smarty Jones.
This video is going to touch you, so watch this when you want a heartwarming story.
http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/feature/index?page=MyWish2008
Next up...campaigners. The title of campaigner in Thoroughbred racing holds more weight today.
If a horse is a campaigner, my respect is automatically boosted to the
next level. I don't even care if you are a gelding and "have" to race
since the breeding shed doesn't need you. Many of us have followed some old friends still on the track. Of course there are many who are retired, but I want to focus on horses from recent competition.
Horses were created to run and romp in herds and be in competition, and it is amazing to see some of the stats for horses that run for several seasons. Even some of those campaigners that have been injured, sometimes severely, return to amaze.
Here are just a few recent campaigners that came to mind. Feel free to add more.
List: All photos are by Anne M. Eberhardt
Brass Hat
Cosmonaut
Better Talk Now
Yeats
Ouija Board
Perfect Drift
Ginger Punch
Funny Cide
The Tin Man
Lava Man
Like old friends who you can rely on, the horses I mentioned put forth a good, typically talented effort.
The Bandit:
So this blog post brings me to one specific horse. A Thoroughbred you ask? No.
A half-Arabian named Elmer Bandit.
Stats:
37 years young
20,480 miles traveled on hoof
(the record distance is held by Wing Tempo at 20,710)
Bandit is a competitive trail horse. So he isn't just your average flat terrain horse, but rocks, mountains, rivers...you name it. Elmer first hit my radar back in April, while working on the Ryder Report for TheHorse.com. Read up on this horse and what he has done and is remarkably setting out to do.
http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=12615
http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=12530
So even though he isn't a Thoroughbred, I thought he deserved some love. Are there horses, of any breed, you want to praise? Name them and explain why.
