WHAT'S IN A NAME?
On the surface, what follows may seem like nit-picking. To me, it goes to the heart of our sport's #1 problem: ignorance. (To those who would argue our sport's #1 problem is greed, I would submit that greed is nothing more than a by-product of ignorance.)
For the better part of the 20th Century, the men whose influence helped shape the game were on par with the captains of industry. From management to media, racing's power brokers would have been successful in whatever career path they might have chosen. That they chose horse racing is a huge reason why the game flourished for as long as it did. Lately, it seems, the game has been a haven for dull wits with an almost perverse knack for flaunting their dullness at the worst possible times.
Like NBC-TV executives who decided to air a round-table on catastrophic breakdowns still in the frenzy of the Eight Belles tragedy, and with only days' preparation, fully aware that the nitwit, know-nothing reporter they chose on this all-important panel to represent the media - in effect, to represent them -- would compare horse racing in its depravity and brutality to dog fighting!
Seriously, how much dumber can grown men with jobs get?
If you watched the 2-hour Pacific Handicap telecast on ESPN Sunday, you're aware it was the first time our sport ever has been televised in prime time. Leave it to horse racing to put its collective ignorance prominently on display yet again.
Who with an 8th grade education doesn't know that the noun form of the adjective magnificent is spelled magnificence? Ask a bunch of 10-year-olds and I guarantee you the vast majority will know. Ask that same group to pronounce the word mag-ni-fi-ci-ence, and I guarantee you the vast majority will figure it out phonetically, find the extra syllable, and pronounce it correctly, just as they would a-lu-mi-ni-um if they were shown the British spelling of that common word.
Only, this isn't the U.K., and no where on Planet Earth is the word magnificence spelled with an "i" after the "c."
Part of the reason Tony Bentley got fired after 23 years at the Fair Grounds was for mispronouncing Is It In Good the year he won the New Orleans Handicap. Bentley called the horse Isn't It Good throughout the entire race, infuriating its owners. And Tony Bentley, by any standards, is a brilliant guy.
Trevor Denman, by comparison, is a rock. I have no doubt he didn't know any better the first time the filly ran, nor does he know to this day.
But Jerry Bailey and Randy Moss? Could they possibly be that dumb?
Or is it not entirely more likely they made the conscious decision to dumb-down themselves, and the sport of horse racing, rather than embarrass the flaming retard who filled-out the name request with the Jockey's Club, and was so dumb he or she couldn't spell a word that any 5th grader could handle in his sleep?
If that was the case, then shame on Misters Bailey and Moss for making a mockery of themselves, their profession, and the sport of horse racing before a live, prime-time audience. I'd like to bet the farm that should the filly Mag-ni-fi-CI-ence ever show-up at Saratoga or Fair Grounds, neither Tom Durkin nor John G. Dooley would stoop to compromise his profession the way Bailey and Moss did.
In the meantime, hopefully a certain someone will pass along this blog to his crew at ESPN just in case this filly shows-up next on Breeders' Cup Friday, and some 5th grader with designs on becoming a future racing fan just happens to be gathered ‘round his television.
Octave-the-Rave
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