Turf writing
As you know, I am a racetrack sharpie. Here are some horseracing terms I know:spavined
canter
hung like a horse
parimutuel
Charles Bukowski
When ACI was inboard, we read the book Seabiscuit to her. Seabiscuit's historic race against War Admiral was held at Santa Anita racetrack, which we visited the other day for dollar hot dogs. We have no doubt that the dollar hot dogs were made from underperforming horses, as this past weekend ended Santa Anita's season.
Seabiscuit's injury and recuperation, we thought, were emblematic of ACI's own early struggle, as she spent the first two weeks of her life in the hospital, pinioned with tubes.
So when we went to Santa Anita we thought it would be a moment of closure.
"Do you remember my reading Seabiscuit to you when you were in the womb?" I asked.
"No," she said, watching the racetrack Zamboni.
"What about all those Beatles songs I played?""I don't remember," she said.
"In your opinion," I asked, "Do you think that the trend toward fetal communication is about as useful as talking to a plant, based on the fact that you have no affinity toward Seabiscuit and you have been flinging yourself to the ground since we got here?"
"I believe that to be correct," she said.
Adding insult to injury, I have now been disabused of the notion of the supernatural wisdom of children, as espoused by Stephen King and C.S. Lewis. ACI missed the superfecta and tore up her ticket in a rage. Then she put out her cigar in a jockey's eye."Nuts to you," she said.
In related news, the Kentucky Derby and Cinco de Mayo fall on the same day this year. I am going to be making my mint juleps with Mexican sugarcane.
See also: The Bloodhorse, Santa Anita racetrack, At the Track: A Treasury of Horse Racing Stories
Labels: los angeles, tot
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by Marty Barrett at Saturday, April 21, 2007
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