Saturday, May 03, 2008

The Kentucky Derby Sucks

Please don't mind me and please don't be shocked by yet another blog entry with the word "sucks" in it. I'm playing with search engines on this rainy Saturday afternoon and trying to validate a couple of geek-theories. I don't actually hate horses.

At the same time, please don't ask me for the post time. I'd rather be petting horsies and not betting on them. I'm also pretty useless providing directions to Churchill Downs, or confirming the latest odds.

We'll return with a regularly scheduled entry - and a photo - in a couple of hours.

Your turn: If you want to know what the hell I'm doing, just ask...

Update - Saturday 11:24 p.m. - I'm immensely saddened by the passing of second-place finisher Eight Belles. She collapsed after breaking her ankle in the run-out after the race. It's times like this that convince me that this entire industry is unfair to the animals at the center of it all. At the risk of sounding like a freakazoid PETA member (which I'm not, but that's a story for another day), I hope that someday this ridiculous form of gambling is abandoned.

11 comments:

Pat said...

Well I didn't understand SEO in Michele's comment box. I sympathise if you are doing something tricky; I have had paper gumming up my printer for ages and am too chicken to tackle it and have just unplugged everything. Tomorrow maybe.
Seems like there is only the two of us playing at the moment. You may have guessed - I'm here from Michele's. Have fun!

Anonymous said...

The winner is Pyro
For more details here:
http://lasthotnews.blogspot.com/

sage said...

I forgot about the Kentucky Derby--Don't really care about the race, but a once a year mint julep is a worthy quest... I hope you are well my friend, here from Michele's today.

Russ said...

Hey Carmi. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
I live in the middle of Horse country in Florida and I can't believe the insanity that goes on during this day. Personally, I couldn't give two sh**s about horse racing and that puts me in the minority. But that's OK. I spent the day my way...

Susan said...

What the hell are you doing?

Sleepypete said...

Lol - you're up to something crazy ...

On search engines, believe or not but my Blog gives the number 1 entry on Google for "indoor cricket tactics".

courtney said...

the winner was not pyro; it was big brown. and the second place finisher was euthanized shortly afterward, after breaking both front ankles as she tried to slow down. a really bizarre ending.

carmilevy said...

Sage: I'll raise a mint julep in honor of Eight Belles. Poor thing.

Russ: I hear ya. I don't see the big deal. I'd rather play with them in a pasture.

Susan: I noticed that some word choices and phrasings cause search engine-related referrals to jump. So I tried some deliberately obtuse language in the leadup to a high-profile, oft-searched event to see if it would drive traffic. Scary result: it sorta worked.

Sleepypete: So do you play indoor cricket? I LOVE the bizarre terms that get folks to our blogs.

Courtney: I'm so sad about the outcome. It upsets me that horses have no choice in the whole thing. Not fair at all. Thx for setting the anonymous commenter straight...it was a borderline spammer - I followed the link back to one of those lame-oid sites set up to increase one's pagerank. As if.

David Edward said...

carmi, what you are doing is less important to me than 'HOW are you doing?' My sister was just up in Ontario, and had a great trip, I am slightly envious, but mountain bound for the moment, fighting a battle
in my personal life, but MOSTLY winning. G-d is good.

Sleepypete said...

Horse racing isn't a sport I follow (looking forward to being able to catch the late night baseball tonight ! no work tomorrow) but I'm sad to hear about what happened. We accept the risks of a game ourselves when we play but when there's an animal involved, they can't really tell us what they think about it.

Indoor cricket - used to but the league at work has rather broken up. I was getting a bit dangerous anyway because of my shoulder injury. To get any smoothness, I have to use my quicker bowling action. Trouble is, there's still a good chance that I'll send something down head high, which tends to start fights ;-)

Carolyn said...

Hi Carmi,

I was in tears after poor Eight Belles' tragedy! I really do like watching the Derby, but I believe they ride those horses waaaay to hard. Plus, she was only a filly in a race with larger, more mature horses.

They decided not to race her on Friday with her own peers, instead, they risked her for the Derby win. It was bad judgment on her owners/trainers part. Bad judgment fueled by greed I suppose.

She took 2nd prize, but paid the ultimate price :(