AND THEY'RE OFF!

To celebrate Saturday's 135th running of the Kentucky Derby, I thought I'd get a bunch of my dog friends together for our own little race. Y'know, to see if we could beat the horses' time. But the bad foot & rainy weather put a quash on that plan so we watched the race on TV instead.

Even if you're not a racing fan, this year's derby was definitely worth watching. The drama started early when the favored horse dropped out at the last minute with a foot injury. When everyone was busy recalculating the betting odds, Kentucky's yucky weather turned the track into a dicey sloppy mess. Things got really interesting about a minute and a half into the race when Mine That Bird, a nobody horse with very beatable odds, sprinted out of dead last place to win.
And not just by nose - he won by a near record-breaking 6 1/2 horse lengths.

My human says the best thing about Mine That Bird's win is that it scored one for the underdogs. A $9,500 horse among million-dollar competitors, he showed up at the derby in a regular old trailer pulled by his trainer's pickup truck. He was so far off everyone's radar that even the race announcer failed to notice him taking the lead until he was almost across the finish line.

I think this horse racing stuff is the best thing on TV!

Brother Dutch said racing also has a dark side, that endings aren't always so happy. I don't exactly know what he's talking about, but when Mine That Bird's jockey started to cry during the post-race interview, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.