Cars and Horses

So I have a lot of racing on the brain these days.

I caught Saturday's Jim Dandy (horse race) and watched Bernardini blow the doors off the rest of the field, an appropriate turn of phrase because I found out he's named after some European race car driver. He was only facing half a dozen competitors, but he got a hand ride all the way to the finish line - which basically means the jockey didn't pull out his whip. More than that, the jockey didn't even push him that hard; if you see a replay of the race and watch his hands, you can tell Bernardini is coasting. You might remember Bernarndini won the Preakness this year after Barbaro's ill-fated step. He's been overlooked, but I'm impressed.

Speaking of Barbaro, he's doing well - still eating well, still in a sling, and last I heard, he had started to grow some hoof back on the foot that got laminitis. So there's still hope. Keep your fingers crossed!

The point of that is, Bernardini, if he stays healthy, is a big threat for the Travers at the end of the month and November 4th's Breeders Cup. I'm gonna be watching the BC so if you're around and want a day full of races, you're welcome to come over.

I've also watched some auto racing over the last few days. Danica Patrick signed with Andretti Green racing for next season, which surprised me, since Bobby Rahal and David Letterman did so much to get her this far BUT rumor has it, Bobby has been spending a lot more time with his son Graham, getting him ready to run, and so a little owner neglect may be behind the move. I don't know more than that. Anybody else hear anything different?

She did however throw a rather unattractive hissy fit at the end of the MIS race, complete with foot-stomping. I know the male drivers do it a lot, and it's never charming. She got it together enough for the interview, but anyway, it would have been nice if the TV crews had stopped following her down the track and focused on the guy who actually won the race, Helio Castroneves, especially since he's fun and climbs the fence after he wins. (Sorry Tony Stewart, he just does it better than you.)

Speaking of auto racing, my mom and I got into a big discussion about the future of open wheel racing. TONY GEORGE, SUCK IT UP AND COMBINE THE LEAGUES. Tony owns and runs the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and his big thing was to create a league that would be All-American and allow new drivers the opportunity to get behind the wheel, and the owners disagreed, so that's why there are two similar open-wheel leagues.

What has he actually done? He's created two mediocre leagues, neither of which is All-American, and both of which are suffering to come up with 20 drivers in a race. He couldn't even get 33 drivers into the Indy 500 without bringing in drivers from the other league and calling up retirees like Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr (known as Little Al in our family, although 'little' he isn't). That makes Bump Day a virtual joke because there's nobody to bump!

When I can watch 43 go bumper-to-bumper in NASCAR, I can see why people bail on open-wheel. And here's another twist - some NASCAR fans say they like the league because its All-American, but with Juan Pablo Montoya headed there next year, NOBODY is going to be 'All-American' - whatever that means, since most of these guys live in the States now, regardless of where they started out. And if we're not a nation of immigrants, I don't know what we are. If you want to be technical, the only All-Americans in this nation are the Native Americans because they were here a lot longer than the rest of us. The rest of us are immigrants, it's that simple.

That's my car-racing rant of the day. I still haven't picked a full-time NASCAR driver, and I probably should, before my mother or my aunt assign me one. I have two in IRL (Scott Sharp and Danica Patrick), one in Champ Car (Katherine Legge, I always try to root for the gals), at least one who dropped off the face of the earth (Patrick Carpentier), and one NASCAR guy who sometimes runs and sometimes doesn't (Terry Labonte). Yes, kids, this is the story of my life!