Underdog or Little Dog?

Is It the Underdog or the Little Dog?  Either Way, They are the Stars This Week

Everything around us relates to other things around us.  That’s not the most profound idea.  But it occurred to me this week as I noted that the relatively small basketball player, Jeremy Lin, along with the very small Pekingese dog, Malachy, and the smallish racehorse Junebugred all seem to have their relative smallness of stature as a common denominator, and all are either in or destined for headlines before long.

Lin and Malachy have already hit the headlines.  And, as the song says about things in New York “if you can do it there, you can do it anywhere.”  Now the question will be surrounding the smallish guy named Junebugred, who will be one of the favorites in the $250,000 Southwest Stakes on Monday at Oaklawn Park.  The Southwest has become so popular that there’s more than a fighting chance it will be split into two races.  It’s a graded stakes, which means that twice as many of the entrants will be earning money to qualify to start in the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday of May.

Junebugred has managed to fly somewhat under the racing radar for a while, but that could all end on Monday.  The little chestnut son of Corinthian used his size to squeeze through a narrow opening at the rail in the Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn on January 16, Martin Luther King Day, and scored his first stakes win in doing so.  He had won a one mile event at Aqueduct prior to that race, not a whole lot to base a solid recommendation.

But he seems to have caught onto the idea that he’s pretty good.  Now he will have to show that he, like Lin, the NBA fourth string point guard for the New York Knicks who recently went from his brother’s couch to a Trump Towers condo, can repeat his exploits on a regular basis.  Malachy, the little Pekinese dog who beat all the bigger dogs for the “Best in Show” title at the Westminster Kennel Club show, the Kentucky Derby of dog shows, had tallied 115 previous “best in show” titles.  Lin got the chance to out duel the great Kobe Bryant when the Knicks hosted the Los Angeles Lakers and he was up to the task, scoring 38 points in a memorable performance which has made the unassuming Harvard grad the “Toast of the Town.”

If Junebugred can follow up his Smarty Jones win with another, even more convincing score, in the Southwest, he can become a hero like the others.  Even Smarty Jones himself was not a large horse.  What these animals prove is that size doesn’t necessarily matter.  Lin, for a basketball player, is a small guy.  He’s a few inches taller than me, but I’ve been amongst the kind of towers he plays against and would think even a guy like Lin would be a bit intimidated. Not so him, Malachy or, apparently, Junebugred.

We have seen some really outstanding prospects race already at Oaklawn this season.  The three-year-old  class will sort itself out to a large degree in Monday’s race or races.  Some of those I’ve watched closely appear to be great prospects.  Some had trouble in the Smarty Jones and deserve another chance. But I find myself pulling for the little guy, Junebugred.  It just seems like the time is right for the little guy to step to the fore.

On another subject, Saturday morning will give us the first opportunity in a long time to allow our fans the chance to come out to the track and enjoy a program which lets them see horses during training hours and get to meet some personalities they may have been wanting to meet for some time.

Dawn at Oaklawn will run from 8-10 a.m. on Saturday on the south apron of the grandstand, which it appears will work well, given that the weather should cooperate.  On the schedule are trainer “Jinks” Fires and his son-in-law, jockey Jon Court, both of whom have become legends in the local sport.  They teamed up with Archarcharch to win last year’s Arkansas Derby and have been around great horses all their lives.  Fires’ family could easily be called the First Family of Racing in Arkansas, since they have so many members who have been dedicated to the racing business, including Earlie, a Hall of Fame jockey.  Court fit right in, when he married Fires daughter, Krystal.  Court has already won the prestigious George Woolf Award and has become a favorite of longshot players around Oaklawn.

Dawn at Oaklawn will be different now from the Dawn at Oaklawn which was presented twenty years ago at Oaklawn.  That was a sit-down, inside gathering.  This time the production is built around really seeing the horses.  It’s nice to have Fires and Court both there, but it’s better to see the horses doing what they do best, just be horses enjoying their short span of time outside of their stalls.  We will try to always spot the most famous horses and, as we progress through the season, that might include some of the sport’s biggest names.

But mostly what we want to accomplish is to make everyone’s trip to Oaklawn something very special.  The more we do this, the better we should get at it.  The more times that racing fans can attend, the better they’ll learn to feel about the horses which they admire in the afternoons.   This is one effort which is a “win” situation for all of us.  So, if you’re debating getting up early on Saturday mornings during the Oaklawn meet, come on and visit with us. We’ll have the coffee and donuts to start your day off.  But we’ll also have the horses, big and small, for you to enjoy.  It will be fun to see you there.