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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChristie booed at Monmouth Park I mean really booed--loud sustained and truly a thing of beauty
My two favorite spectators sports--both involving big creatures with small brains, who are owned by millionaires and who run around in circles guided by midgets--merged today and it was awesome.
First was a moment of true sports magic. Triple Crown winner American Pharoah won the $1.7 million Haskell Invitational with breathtaking ease. The horse hit the head of the stretch in second place. Jockey Victor Espinosa said "OK sovereign my lord whenever you're ready." The Pharoah kicked in and it was goodbye losers. I was on the rail screaming my head off along with around 65,000 other fans. When it was over Espinosa paraded the champion along the grandstand as American Pharoah walked nodding his head regally toward the crowd seeming to somehow absorb the praise and adulation as if he somehow understood that this uproar, this love was all for him.
For some reason American Pharoah and Espinosa were kept walking around outside the winner's circle for several minutes--I don't know if this had to do with a certain very important personage but it might have. At last, when they went in, the crowd cheered the trainer Bob Baffert and the owner Achmed Zayat almost as loudly as they had cheered the horse and jockey. Then another face appeared on the jumbotron. It was governor and presidential candidate Chris Christie there to present the trophy.
The crowd erupted in boos. I mean really loud boos. It was unmistakable. Everyone around me was booing too or laughing so hard they couldn't boo.
Now booing the Governor is something of a tradition at the Haskell--I've been going to it for years. The deeply unpopular John Corzine got booed too but I never heard anything like this. It was long, sustained and brutal. To make matters worse, the moment the camera shifted back to American Pharoah or Achmed Zayat or to Victor Espinosa or to Bob Baffert the crowd started cheering again. Then when Christie got on camera---booooooo!
Christie looked like he was going to kill someone, probably whatever aide suggested that he should show up at a sporting event in New Jersey of all places, worse yet at a classic and much loved track which a few years ago he had threatened to close down, a race track on the Jersey shore where people do not take allegations of his using Sandy relief money to pay off political backers lightly. Maybe Achmed Zayat is a supporter--he supposedly called Christie "Mr. President" after the presentation was over--or maybe Zayat has a great sense of the absurd.
Christie of course did not go anywhere near the horse which is a good thing because by all accounts American Pharoah is a very sweet horse, a creature of great nobility and excellent manners and decorum--unlike a certain governor I could mention.
Oh yeah Christie was booed and it was almost as beautiful as American Pharoah's victory.
http://www.nj.com/horse-racing/index.ssf/2015/08/gov_chris_christie_booed_mercilessly_--_twice_--_at_the_haskell.html
bvf
(6,604 posts)Last edited Mon Aug 3, 2015, 01:44 AM - Edit history (1)
http://m.montanacowboy
(6,090 posts)couldn't happen to a bigger piece of SHIT
He isn't fit to clean manure from Pharoah's stall - he is truly one ugly fuck
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)Tell us how you really feel.
Backwoodsrider
(764 posts)That horse really is regal and high class. The other one not so much. I can just imagine Christies expression when he heard the boos because I believe he really does think he is high class, much like an 8th grader thinks they are king of the hill. So when he heard the boos bet that did not make sense to him so again like an 8th grader he looks for someone to blame. He is trying to blame because it has to be their fault because he is a no bs kinda guy, the kind of guy everyone likes! In his mind anyway
bklyncowgirl
(7,960 posts)How sweet it is.
ruffburr
(1,190 posts)Felt such a moment of satisfaction and glee in years, LMAO Go home and smoke some pot fat boy!!
No Vested Interest
(5,167 posts)The race itself is available on youtube now, but not the part where Christie is booed.
Maybe tomorrow.
nc4bo
(17,651 posts)CanSocDem
(3,286 posts)Always a pleasure to read about some loudmouthed bully getting his 'comeuppance'...
.
ProfessorGAC
(65,076 posts)And it ain't the horsey.
bklyncowgirl
(7,960 posts)And it sure ain't Christie.
ProfessorGAC
(65,076 posts)Made my chuckle.
malaise
(269,054 posts)Christie being booed.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)malaise
(269,054 posts)bklyncowgirl
(7,960 posts)malaise
(269,054 posts)90-percent
(6,829 posts)That I think would completely wreck his election chances is that he feels if you are caught with one marijuana seed you should spend ten years in jail!
Really, how many Americans in this day and age are in favor of our stupid and cruel life wrecking WAR ON DRUGS?
Talk about deliberately being on the extremely wrong side of history.
Fortunately I think his overweight goose is cooked.
-90% Jimmy
George II
(67,782 posts).....in New Jersey out of business, yet he continually gives hundreds of millions of dollars to the dying casino industry.
bklyncowgirl
(7,960 posts)There are all sorts of reasons to boo this jerk. From the horsemen, to the bettors, to the public employees, to people who are still waiting for their Sandy money to folks who voted for him thinking he would actually do the job he was elected to do instead of dashing off to Iowa and New Hampshire in hopes of bringing his special magic to the rest of the country almost everyone in the state is mad at him.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Roy Rolling
(6,917 posts)Christie was heard whispering to an aide "I'd like to punch American Pharaoh in the nose."
George II
(67,782 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)Thanks.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)Racing is normal for horses. <caveat to follow>
Anyone who has ridden knows that horses like to race.
Horses KNOW when they win a race.
They KNOW when they are being cheered.
You can have a broken down, mangy, old swayback,
ride her in front of a cheering crowd,
and she will start prancing and tossing her head.
Racing IS normal for horses.
What is not normal is the breeding of Thoroughbreds whose legs are so thin
that some break legs every year.
bklyncowgirl
(7,960 posts)It is extremely politically incorrect and rather cruel to say it, but the Thoroughbred breed was much stronger back in the days when the only cure for a broken leg was a bullet.
Some of the hottest stallions on the market are precocious speedballs who broke down after a few races. Some didn't even make it to race at three. These horses, unfortunately pass along their unsoundness along with their speed and precocity to their offspring. The sheiks and billionaires who pay big bucks for these fashionably bred colts after all want a quick return on investment. A few races and then off to the breeding shed.
I'd like to see the Jockey Club adopt some sort of rule that if a horse did not meet certain criteria regarding soundness, career length, etc. then its offspring could not be registered. That's unlikely to happen but I was kind of encouraged by the fact that Taylor Made Farm, upon buying breeding rights to California Chrome, said that one of the things they liked about him was his impressive durability. American Pharoah seems like a sound horse too--any horse that can do the full Triple Crown series and come back sound and healthy in the summer is a horse I'd like to breed my mare too. Maybe the tide is turning.
hay rick
(7,624 posts)I moved to FL 3+ (make that 3 and up) years ago. I watched the replay on Youtube. Magnificent. I'm very happy that Baffert brought his triple crown winner to the shore...even if it was for a well-paid Grade 1 warmup. Playing "Born to Run" and booing Christie...delicious icing on the cake.
Thanks for the OP.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)▶ 0:27
malaise
(269,054 posts)Too good
Response to bklyncowgirl (Original post)
rocktivity This message was self-deleted by its author.
bread_and_roses
(6,335 posts)I too follow TB racing - delightful account of a delightful incident!