A Feel-Good Story in the Midst of Tragedy

It's been tough for our equine friends of late. Lost in the Fog is destined to spend the rest of his days, how many they may be, in his stall at Golden Gate, consuming all the feed he wants and nipping at all the veterinarians that stroll by, until he becomes "uncomfortable". I hope if I ever have that kind of prognosis befall me, I'm given the same options; only let me nip at Johnny Depp or Patrick Swayze in my last hours and not some dumb doctor. Then the tragic news of Saint Liam, who merely was "led to his paddock" and broke his tibia in a 1,000,044 places and was euthanized, leaving 115 knocked-up mares with the only progeny of an exceptional horse. And in other Tough-to-Digest horse news (no pun intended, which is unusual for this blog), our nation's crack-precision legislature is scheduled to vote on HR 503 that is aimed to end horse slaughter in America. The Humane Society of the United States and organizations such as Just Say Whoa! are putting out the word. And according to the AP wires, my good friend and Country Legend, Willie Nelson, has given up singing to become a lobbiest.

If you've ever been around horses, you know they are part of the American heritage. I don't think that it's right that we kill them and eat them. [Willie Nelson - AP]

So on my search to find some happy or silly news to share with all of you, I went through my usual cyber hunting grounds. Thus, I eventually visited Dan Illman's FormBlog, only because if Dan doesn't post something ridiculous or silly, usually some other person does. Imagine my surprise this afternoon when I read Dan's entry, extolling praises of a horse named Movement! I'd put in the link but DRF requires registration so I'll provide the quote for you:

Aug 23, 2006 12:25 PM
Congrats to poster, questionable dq

First off, I'd like to congratulate poster Tote Board Brad as his 2-year-old filly Movement ran a good second in her career debut at the Bay Meadows Fair on Saturday. She showed good speed from the get-go, and finished six lengths clear of the third-place finisher. Sorry I couldn't have been there to cheer her on, but here' s hoping she reaches the winner's circle real soon.By the way, Brad has a great blog over at http://exploitfilly.blogspot.com/ so check it out along with the rest of the folks at the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance.

Whoa! The great Dan Illman provides a direct link to good ol' Tote Board Brad! The love affair has begun. Dan will probably propose by the end of the year. And to think I made of fun Dan inferring that he did not know the meaning of restrictive paradigm?

And speaking of the new Wonder-Filly, Movement, apparently I was the only person on the planet who made some money on her last Saturday. I sat around Lone Star Park's Post Time Pavillion for an hour and a half, just waiting for this race. And I will have you know, for that hour and a half, I had to consume two (2) frozen margaritas and have a conversation with some guy named Wally. Was it Wally? Maybe his name was Stanley ... no wait a minute, maybe it was Billy. No matter: it's not like he paid for my margaritas or anything like that (although as we chatted about the 7th race at San Mateo Fair at Bay Meadows, he did agree that "the 9 horse seems to have the best pedigree, and of course, she is Kentucky Bred.")

So congratualtions to my good friend as well as Dan Illman's good friend and everybody's good friend, Tote Board Brad, on an outstanding achievement. And it should be noted that the silks worn by jockey Jorge Bourdieu, were the debut of Brad's silks. Note to Brad: The silks are very attractive but there is some kind of blue note emblem on them (perhaps the St. Louis Blues?) which would be kind of weird; you being a CPA in the Bay Area, which, geographically is nowhere near the city of St. Louis.:
If you were to have and some kind of "emblem" on your signatures silks, I was sure that it would look like this one (hic):