It was a year ago that prominent Thoroughbred owner and St. John’s University alumnus and mega booster Mike Repole can recall being at Gulfstream Park with Red Storm men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino to watch the Curlin Florida Derby.
The 97th Academy Awards arrives Sunday, March 2 beginning at 7 p.m. ET, and horse racing aficionados can revel in the implicit recognition the sport of kings annually receives when journalists and film buffs adopt racing’s handicapping lingo to forecast the night’s winners.
The sport of horse racing might have started with the simple question of whose horse is fastest, but centuries of such challenges have morphed that humble query into a full-fledged industry, replete with stories of great horses and the humans behind them. Racing reflects the world it inhabits, a mirror for the societal and economic conflicts playing out in the background.
In horse racing, the practice of matching a stallion with a broodmare to create a potentially world-class Thoroughbred is a world unto its own. Many people spend a lot of money, time, and mental focus on finding just the right male-female combination that can hit the genetic lottery and result in a Triple Crown or Breeders’ Cup winner. When it does happen, the pairings become part of horse racing history – so to celebrate Valentine’s Day, here are five notable Thoroughbred “couples” from the past 20 years or so whose offspring have made mom and dad proud.
You’d better believe the Kentucky Derby will be a hot topic this spring in the Boston Red Sox locker room. Derby fever is contagious and two Sox players already have been bitten by the horse racing bug: Walker Buehler and Alex Bregman, both of whom signed with the team this offseason.
Was this pairing planned to share trips to the racetrack and team up on Pick 4 tickets? I’d like to think so, but even if it was just coincidence, it’s a perfect match … and it won’t be the first time the new teammates have joined forces.
