Between that glorious day in June 1978 when Affirmed became the 11th Triple Crown winner and June 2015 when American Pharoah halted the 37-year drought, 13 horses fell one win short in their bid for racing immortality.
In the mid-1970s, a crafty but achy-armed left-handed pitcher named Tommy John faced the prospect of surgery to extend his career in Major League Baseball. His surgeon, Dr. Frank Jobe, devised a new way to treat John’s ailment, using a tendon elsewhere in his patient’s body to replace a damaged ulnar collateral ligament. The new technique proved a stroke of genius as it not only allowed John to resume his career, it also saved the career of a long list of pitchers in future years.
Today, Jobe’s breakthrough surgical procedure is known as Tommy John Surgery.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines courage as “the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.” We see human examples of this each time jockeys guide thousand-pound Thoroughbred dynamos from the explosion of the starting gate to the rush for the finish line.
Throughout the years, most top contenders in prep races for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve have been colts or geldings. Although fillies are eligible for all Derby preps and can earn points toward securing a spot in the starting gate for the first jewel of the Triple Crown, not many of them take on males along the Derby trail or in the classic.
Kentucky Derby upset winner Mine That Bird has returned to Churchill Downs, the sight of his greatest victory, to help usher in the Kentucky Derby Museum’s new Long Shots exhibit, which opens to the public March 28.
