A Surfeit of Horses

I am still trying to absorb the banquet of magnicent horseflesh that I reveled in on Friday and Saturday at the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, held this year at "my track," Santa Anita.  Over the two days, 14 stakes races were run under the Breeders' Cup banner, all but one of them with a purse of at least $1 million.  Eight of them are rated Grade One, the highest level of racing in the world.  

I shot over 1500 photos (thank goodness for digital!) and am still going through them, deciding which ones need to be uploaded to the lab for printing.  After a while, my eyes start to glaze over from staring at the screen too long.  

All of the races were exciting but my favorites were: the $2 million Juvenile Filles for 2-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles, won by the lanky grey Stardom Bound in her typical come-from-behind style; the $2 million Ladies Classic (which used to be called the Distaff, a much better name IMHO) for fillies and mares aged 3 and up at 1 1/8 miles, won by the great undefeated 4-year-old filly Zenyatta, a huge bay with a quirky personality and talent to spare; the $5 million Classic for colts, geldings and horses (race-speak for stallions; in the Thoroughbred industry, older male racers are called "horses" and only those retired to stud are called "stallions") aged 3 and up at 1 1/4 miles, won by the 3-year-old chestnut colt Raven's Pass in a upset over the heavy favorite Curlin (the first horse to earn over $10 million in purse money and last year's Horse of the Year). 

Battling the Evil Virus Monster

I have been battling a nasty cold virus.  My main weapons have been lying about the house in my jim-jams reading magazines, sleeping a lot, Mucinex (horrible name, great medication), snuggling with cats and eating chocolate cake.  I'm not sure how much good the chocolate cake did, but just in case, I'm going to keep it in mind for the next time I get a cold.

I've also been working on a self-study course in back of the book indexing through the USDA Graduate School.  So far I've completed three assignments and gotten scores back on two of them (a 96 and a 90, not that I'm bragging or anything...).  I've found that a lot of the skills I've learned working in libraries, including MARC cataloging, are helping me out.  I have no delusions of fame and wealth coming my way if I learn how to create a decent index, but I do hope for some supplemental income and possibly a work-from-home career in the future.  I've always said my ideal job would involve me being alone in a room with books and maybe I've found one of those "dream jobs."  We'll see how I feel about it after I complete some of the more difficult assignments ...