Dear
Readers,
I
returned from Kentucky yesterday, and after a wonderful week spent immersed in the
stately bluegrass lifestyle, I couldn’t wait to write down a few thoughts.
First day was spent at the Keeneland
Two-year-old in training sale. I don’t care who you are, when you look at the
young horses that have been prepared to perfection, parade around the classy
Keeneland sale facility, on the muscle, it’s impossible not to dream about
opportunity.
I must say that I wasn’t enamored with the
number of babies who were asked to work an eighth of a mile in nine and change.
Breaking ten flat seemed to be the magic number for consignors to achieve
maximum return on their investment. Personally I wouldn’t have bought a two-year-old
working that fast, while under the whip, this early in the year. But nonetheless, I was excited to be there,
and enjoyed the day. I do love the sales, even when half the catalog was withdrawals.
Wednesday was spent, first in the
Pegasus Room at Keeneland, the guest of Castleton Lyon, for lunch and an
afternoon at the races. Later it was the elegant reception at the Castleton
Lyon Farm, followed by the award presentation.
Each finalist was asked to spend a
few minutes speaking to the assembled crowd about why they wrote their book. I was last
up and though I have spoken in front of a lot of groups about racing and my
memoir in particular, it was intimidating to be standing in front of some of
the major owners and breeders in Kentucky.
Being first or last to speak, has its
own set of pressures to be sure. But following two authors who’d stepped up to
the podium with binders to read from, left me feeling desperately under prepared
as I climbed the dais with my one page of notes.
To tell you the truth, I think at
that point the crowd may have been prepared for brevity and thus my two minutes
were quite well received. I would say I got a standing ovation, but in truth
there weren’t any chairs.
These are the notes, in part, that I
carried to the lectern:
·
My
memoir is a story about hard work, hope and embracing the inconceivable.
·
And
how working towards a dream is as important as believing they can come true.
·
When
I sat down to write the memoir, twenty years after my 1992 Triple Crown
adventure. I quickly found I was writing to an audience, not of horsemen and
women, but to the television audience that loves horses, and loves the beauty
and pageantry of the sport of horse racing.
·
I
found I wanted to share the amazement, and the joy I experienced at having a
horse good enough to take me to the heights of the Thoroughbred racing world.
·
I
wanted to give a glimpse into what goes on behind the Network camera lenses to
those men, women, girls, and boys who tune in on the first Saturday in May to
watch the pretty horses, the colorful crowds and the excitement that virtually
heaves off the screen.
·
What
I knew for sure, was that I didn’t want to write a book that would be called Horse
Racing for Dummies. So I called on all my prior experiences and let my stories
unfold on the pages.
·
But
most of all, my memoir is a story about a head strong, talented and charismatic
colt who never met anyone he didn’t like.
·
Stanley’s
ardor for life was palpable and a powerful motivator whenever I began to doubt
myself and my hope would begin to fade.
·
Within
the pages and amidst the telling of the stories, you’ll find I have no problem
poking fun at myself. You will laugh, and you will cry, but most of all when
you’ve finished, you will hope that someday you’ll be lucky enough to be in the
right place…at the right time…to catch lightning in a bottle.
And then the winner of the ten
thousand dollar award was? David Owen. With his story about Foinavon, a 100-1 long
shot, who won the 1967 Grand National steeple chase in England. Foinavon galloped
home the winner, following a tragic accident where virtually every other horse in
the field went down in a massive pile-up of injured Jockeys and dying horses.
As a runner-up in the Dr. Tony Ryan
Award, I was thrilled to be awarded a lovely Irish crystal replica of the Castleton
Lyon tower, and a check for one thousand dollars. To have been included in the finals
of such a fine award competition, and with my first book, was exciting as well as
an affirmation that I’d accomplished, with all the hard work, what I’d set out
to do. And that was to tell the story of Casual Lies, and in such a way, that anyone
who read the book would understand what a remarkable journey this equally
remarkable horse took us on.
Now onto the races at Keeneland, where
I enjoyed watching Wise Dan make his 2014 debut a winning one, and what a crowd
favorite he is. On Saturday I bet the winner of the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes. I
wasn’t particularly surprised when I looked at the tote board to see another
California runner who wasn’t getting any respect in the wagering. Coming off a
big second at Golden Gate, a racetrack that also boasts a synthetic surface, Dance With Fate
was who I hurried to bet after the post parade.
I may have left Kentucky a slightly
disappointed runner-up for the book award, but I left with money in my pocket, and
it was bolstered with my winning wagers at beautiful Keeneland Race Track.
The Kentucky Derby is right around
the corner now; do you have your favorite? Share your thoughts by posting a
comment.
Take
care,
Shelley
Lee Riley, author of Casual Lies – A Triple
Crown Adventure, 2013 Dr. Tony Ryan Award Finalist.
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