fkach Wrote:
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> I think performance standards matter in our
> perceptions.

I know this is true of me to a very advanced degree.

I am not a breeder, so I don't have that concern or perspective - one that I would think should be very concerned about lines that the "world" will buy. I am not a trainer, so I don't have the concerns about clients, legs, cost of labor etc.,and I don't own horses and never have except for small pieces of cheap horses, just for fun a long time ago. I am a horseplayer, and the hook in me for decades has always been at least in significant degree, the match between my nervous system, and my sense of aesthetics, and the pop culture line of a "need for speed".

On the other hand, I enjoyed living in Europe for a couple of years, during Nijinsky's day, and saw Mill Reef break his maiden one day at Saint Cloud, for Raymond Guest if memory serves, and that's a crap shoot. The tempo, the pastoral elegance, the acres of green, etc., as well as the "cafe" style of living was awesome and another dimension to me. I lived in Lausanne and Paris for about a year each during my twenties.

When I was in Europe I insisted after enough wine, or even enough kirsch in enough fondue, on imitating Marshall Cassidy's calls. Upon return to the states, I bought a Harley and rode it 100,000 miles while normal people were working. So, I understand both fast and slow, Rock and Roll, Jazz, and Classical music.

Theatrical, Manila, but Groovy, Safely Kept, Ghostzapper, Graustark, Devil's Bag, and the one that ran 1/5th slower in his Champagne and did not break down, Seattle Slew. I loved them all. Grace, Speed. Both Beautiful.

The Bluegrass and the Pacific Classic were not appealing to my sense of No. American sport, or my inherited cultural bias. If I owned a claiming horse, I would want one like Spooky Mulder, and if I bred horses I would be trying to get one like Ghostzapper, or War Emblem, and I would think I am not alone on that, just as I would admit that seems somehow out of sync with the rest of the world, so I will have to adjust.

I would probably have a renewed sense of "style", had I bet Dominican, OR Student Council. But as Bob Seger said, Rock and Roll will never forget, and Poly track ain't like rock and roll. When Ghostzapper moved on the turn in the Tom Fool, I tried to describe it to friends that don't play, and of course couldn't although I thought it was somehow like "Primetime" in his Prime; when you got $8.00 to see him LEAD on a track that had water in it, I was thrilled, and the MET confirmed to my parochial mind; this is a cool horse that will get money in the shed.

Polytrack is a let down. How's that for science? Or business, or the breed? It's just not cool. Speed was cool, and speed that was rateable and reusable, that carried, was AWESOME. Seattle Slew was very cool.