Triple Treat
It’s not all that often that a horse racing story gets top billing, but it’s not all that often that a horse wins the Triple Crown of racing, the Kentucky Derby, The Preakness and The Belmont Stakes in the same year. It had been 37 years, or all the way back in 1978, since a horse (by the name of Affirmed) had won that difficult to achieve feat of accomplishment. But that all ended today, when American Pharaoh won the Belmont by about five lengths to clinch that elusive third win in horse racing’s big three events.
American Pharaoh won the three races this year because he simply WAS the best 3 year old horse in the country. He won the Kentucky Derby, more of a middle level distance, by having the strength and speed to come from behind down the stretch to win by about a length and a half. He won The Preakness, more of a speed race, by simply being faster than everyone else and winning by about seven lengths. And he won The Belmont by having the strength and stamina to dominate the distance race by a good five plus lengths. He was simply bigger, faster and stronger than everyone else and dominated.
By comparison, the last Triple Crown winner Affirmed won all three of his races by just a nose or so over the equally talented horse of that year named Alydar. In fact, Alydar was the regally bred favorite going in, and Affirmed was the second banana horse of “lesser pedigree,” who, nevertheless had just enough desire to win each of the closely fought races by just a few inches over the same horse in all three races. The winning margins of Affirmed over Alydar in all three victories of those Triple Crown races COMBINED was probably less than ONE length total.
If you think close horse races down the stretch are exciting events to watch, you should try to see all three of those 1978 Triple Crown races on YouTube if possible. Affirmed vs. Alydar. THAT, my friends, was great sports competition.
It may have been horse racing, but it was every bit as good as boxing’s Ali vs. Frazier.
For American Pharaoh, to the victor of ALL THREE Triple Crown races this year goes the spoils. American Pharaoh will now go from pretty good status to legendary status with this one clinching victory. Of ALL of the horses that won Kentucky Derbies and other big races over the last 35 or so years, how many of their names do any of you still remember? Not many, I bet. American Pharaoh has just eclipsed ALL of them with the 2015 Triple Crown. The horse will now be remembered FOREVER. Not a bad accomplishment, I’d say.
In other sports news, the hockey and basketball finals playoff games have moved on.
Chicago won the opening game over Tampa Bay 2 to 1 in hockey. Late in the third period of Game One, Chicago trailed 1 to 0, but rose up and scored two goals late to deflate the Lightning, who had basically outplayed them most of the game. Game Two is being played as I write this (Tampa Bay leads 3 to 2 after two periods). Tampa Bay went into a very obvious “prevent” version of a defensive shell in that game and that tactic did not work that night.
This current version of the Chicago Blackhawks has an ability unlike most teams in all of hockey to turn it on to another level and score goals and turn games around like they did at the end of Game 6 in the playoffs against the Boston Bruins. They trailed in that game 2 to 1 with about a minute and a half to go, when, BOOM, BOOM, they scored two quick goals and not only came back to win the game, they won The Cup.
Will Tampa Bay be good enough to be a team that can hold a lead against the Blackhawks, or will they be the kind of team that gives up that key goal against Chicago and allow them to beat still another team? The answer to that question will probably also be the answer to who will win the series. I will reveal the final score before I hit my final “Submit Post.” Two good teams. Fun to watch quality hockey.
(Tampa Bay won Game Two by the score of 4 to 3. Series now tied 1 to 1. These are two good teams. This was great hockey.)
In basketball, the Golden State Warriors lead the Cleveland Cavaliers 1 to 0 after an overtime win in the first game. In that game, Cleveland saw one of their best players, guard Kyrie Irving, go out with a season ending knee injury. That makes two of the best three players on Cleveland now being out for the series. Their chances to now win the championship? Slim as a Slim Jim beef jerky stick (like the product placement?).
If anyone ever says anything bad about either LeBron James or the city of Cleveland not being able to win the big one, I will be pissed. The teams that have won the championships in the past have USUALLY been the team that was the most healthy. And USUALLY, the team that suffers the key injuries to key players have lost the championship series. Teams are simply too evenly matched, otherwise.
Golden State is simply a FUN team to watch play basketball. They have brought back the beauty of watching a basketball player shooting the ball from outside. Cleveland, with LeBron James and a solid team behind him, is also a fun team to watch. They play really good defense. It’s The Finals.
But, if ANYONE would be able to pull off a one-man, super-human effort to single handedly win an NBA championship in this day and age, it would be LeBron James. And wouldn’t THAT be a treat?
