Future success for the handicapper comes from studying the past.
It comes from understanding the exact revolving attributes that point out
the distinguished qualities of a Champion thoroughbred.
As we enter 2023, never lose sight of the importance of the past and how it relates to the recurring successes year after year. Our Club will continue to pursue the clues of unlocking those future successes with even more determination than ever. Each year that passes adds even more historical relevance, with confidence that grows even stronger and stronger.
Looking back over the last decade, Dr. Roman's theories coupled with Federico Tesio's breeding ideals have produced quite an impressive success rate. The ability to shoot an arrow directly onto a champion target becomes easier and easier with each passing year. That may seem to be a very arrogant statement on my part, but I have yet to see anyone, anywhere, at any time, grasp the potential of a Classic Champion with such a rate of success so early in the game. This is not me; it is Dr. Roman and Federico Tesio hard at work.
What they achieved in the past - for us - continues at such a staggering success rate that I am astounded even more year after year. I look so forward to 2023 with a raw confidence that just continues to blossom.
This is the article where I am supposed to recant the highlights of the past year. Apparently, the trick is to condense 365 days into a 5 minute compelling and witty post, which is supposed to tug at your heart-strings. The obvious and repeated article that is geared towards the retired super-horse Flightline.
The next paragraph, revisit the Derby upset winner, Rich Strike. Move on to lamenting over Epicenter's career ending injury. Throw in Baaeed and then Cody's Wish.
Site a few record breaking final times with Cyberknife in the Haskell and Epicenter in the Louisiana Derby. Finally, end the article with all of the great horses that we lost this year.
Sentimental prose. A walk down memory lane. The typical and somewhat depressing year end post.
I choose, for this year's ending post, to look forward and not backwards.
This sport gave us names like War Admiral, Seattle Slew, A.P. Indy and Secretariat. We witnessed Affirmed, Damascus, Graustark, Barbaro and Cigar. The great Galileo, Frankel and Wise Dan. Rachel and Zenyatta. So many superstars over the past decades. Names that deserve to be continually mentioned every year as well.
2022, we had Flightline. 2023, we shall have another. The eventual dominant champion will unveil himself like clockwork, as history becomes reality once again.
The magic that is the Sport of Kings.
Revolving and never-ending, with a quest to take what we learned from the past and project it onto our current competitors. Digging deep to figure out why those special names from the bygone years continue on into present day without a flinch of the eye.
Why Flightline and not Greatest Honour from Tapit? Why Epicenter and not Simplification from Not This Time? Why Olympiad and not Pipeline from Speightstown?
The past needs not to be somber. The past continues to tell the story of future successes in this sport and each clue that you garner from the chosen few makes it that much easier to pinpoint.
The attributes, breeding, training, habits, tendencies, styles and balance that made them dominant in their divisions in the first place.
Their successes are not by chance. This past year is no different from previous decades. 2023 will again present the exact same attributes of a standout future champion just like every other year.
We all witnessed greatness this year and we all mourned losses, both in the sport that we love and also in our private lives. I am not so sure why we are expected to relive it all, so formally, in the final days of a year.
Smile. Live life. Look brightly into the future and make it happen. Take everything you have seen in the past, everything you witnessed and lived through, and view HISTORY as a real steppingstone as opposed to a lost time in your life. When it comes to the joy in your life, that which is horse-racing, everything from the past always comes full circle.
For this year's ending article, there are two fitting sentiments that I wish to convey as we move into the New Year...
A very heartfelt Thank You to all of the loyal members of the Dirty Horse Club.
A standing ovation and resounding CHEERS to Dr. Steven Roman and Federico Tesio.
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