Faster, Faster, Don't Stop Now

Moments like that are why I love the Derby.

Also, that was the other horse I was rooting for - I was rooting for General Quarters first (great story with the owner) and this one second (dude, crutches!). And nobody ended up dead. Thank GOD.

Work Today

I'm not getting any work done today, and the reason can be summed up as ( this ). Yep. Dog came to work with me. This is what happens when the air conditioning breaks at home.

***

Horse Racing

Big Brown probably winning the Triple Crown is kind of a let down this year. For one, he's owned by a conglomerate. For another, it's just a crappy horse year. And there's the fact that the emphasis on fast over sturdy when breeding (and lineage over going outside the "accepted" gene pool). Smarty Jones was a great horse in the horse world because he wasn't the status quo.

So to pick myself up slightly (cause I'm still bummed over Eight Belles), a reminder of the two horses that encompass everything I fell in love with in regards to the Triple Crown.

( Sunday Silence )

( Charismatic )

Oddly enough, I just realized that my favorite horses were from 1989 and 1999. Which bodes well for next year.

***

All Star Race

My family (me, mom, dad, sister) went to the All Star Race on Saturday night. This was my parents' first race. And they have little interest in racing. *g*

So, the annoying first - chain smoking obnoxious drunks that constantly hit you in the head and kick you in the ass for the. entire. race. And a family with ADD that doesn't pay attention when you tell them "the merchandise trailers are thataway" and proceed to walk through the gates, into the track. (Which means we got to our seats at 4:00. And I didn't get to use the FanView I was loaned. Or get to go by the Team Red Bull trailer. Overall, I got screwed.)

The great was pretty much everything else.

The Showdown

1. I screamed muchly when people were introduced. My family was amused.

2. AJ winning was AWESOME. Twould have been awesomer if Brian or David Ragan had been second, but I'll take what I can get.

3. They didn't show on TV that AJ was exceedingly apologetic to Ellyut. He got loose and the car walked up the track, which, hey, the cars don't wreck as easily as they used to. But it meant he got into Ellyut, which ended Ellyut's day, and AJ felt so very bad about it. He spent a great amount of time apologizing, even more time than he spent celebrating.

4. When AJ got done with his SPEED interview, he turned around and Brian was right there to congratulate him. They did lots of manly hugging.

The Burnout Competition

1. It smelled bad. *g*

2. Jimmie's tires exploding was loud. We all jumped.

3. Kevin's tires didn't explode as loudly.

The All Star Race

1. I made my mother pay particular attention to Junior's introduction. She was very amused by the crowd reaction.

2. I also made her pay attention to Kyle Busch's introduction. She said the crowd was mean. I pointed out that Kyle pretty much asks for it. (Although I did find the crowd mean for booing Kyle's pit crew at the Pit Crew Challenge. They're not Kyle.)

3. I spotted Kasey's pit crew before he was announced as the fan vote winner, which I was able to tell the preteen girl in front of me sporting a Kasey Kahne hat, carrying a fan sign. Hey, if it couldn't have been Ellyut and wasn't Brian or David Ragan, at least the kid got her guy in.

4. DJ and that UPS truck was even more awesome in person.

5. "God Bless America" sounded worse in person, but thankfully "The Star Spangled Banner" sounded great.

6. Drums on TV - good. Drums in person - way too echoy.

7. The crowd often had no clue what was going on. So our first indication that Kyle was in trouble was when his car stayed on pit road after the mandatory 10 minute period. The cheer you heard on TV when they started pushing it back down pit road was because that's when we found out he was out. It was AWESOME.

8. My dad laughed his ass off when Junior took the lead. Mainly because the crowd went nuts.

9. My dad turned to me after the last pit stop and said "Junior's in trouble for taking that long, he won't win". If my dad, who only has a slight clue about racing, can tell that a four tire stop is bad, how come the driver and crew couldn't figure it out? I know the car was wicked loose, but damn!

10. My family got tired of me screaming "GO BIFFLE" for the last two segments. They had to deal.

11. The most incredible moment of the night came post-race, while they were dragging out the victory stage. DJ was put up on the big screen as he was getting out of his car. If you thought he was teary during the anthem, that was nothing compared to the crying he was doing after the race. I admit to getting teary-eyed myself.