Thus was my writing characterized recently by a succinct, eloquent, and of course anonymous commenter.
Maudlin crap?
Etymology: alteration of Mary Magdalene; from her depiction as a weeping
penitent
Date: 1509
1 : drunk enough to be emotionally silly
Oh, dear: “drunk enough to be emotionally silly”? That commenter might be on to something…
Crap:
1a usually vulgar : feces
b usually vulgar : the act of defecating
Well, yes, I’d agree: that language, especially when posted anonymously, would certainly qualify as vulgar to this prim English teacher.
One might also argue that the events of Saturday afternoon at Aqueduct, which spawned the material so labeled, might indeed be considered both vulgar and worthy of emotional silliness. One horse died, another was terribly injured.
I could have, I suppose, lamented my losing tickets in both the Demoiselle and the Cigar.
Or, I guess, I could have shrugged my shoulders and chalked those breakdowns up to being part of the game.
Another option: ignore the breakdowns of Wanderin Boy and Springside altogether, and focus solely on Springside’s, Old Fashioned’s, and Quality Road’s impressive victories.
But that night, when I was writing, I felt (vulgarly) like crap; I didn’t want to have to, again, justify my love of horse racing, to myself or to anybody else. Anybody Else wasn’t asking me any questions, but Myself sure was, and I wasn’t coming up with any answers.
On Monday morning, a friend wrote, expressing his own ambivalent feelings about Saturday at Aqueduct, torn between his love of the game and his gloom at the injuries. Winston at Gathering the Wind felt it, too, as did Dana at Green but Game, and The Bug Boys. So I guess that I’m in pretty good company.
Perhaps none of them got emotionally silly, and while at least one of them might occasionally stoop to vulgarity, you can be sure to find a crap-free zone if you check out their work.
The second definition of “maudlin” is “weakly and effusively sentimental”; “sentimental” means “marked or governed by feeling, sensibility, or emotional idealism” or “resulting from feeling rather than reason or thought.”
I’d say that those are pretty good indicators of how I was feeling on Saturday night, and through most of Sunday, too. So anonymous commenter, you might just want to reveal yourself: you got it right.
Brooklyn Backstretch 
You sum up our love and protection of our sport so well Teresa.Recently I, as well as other racing fans and bettors, were mad about the way a race was ridden at Woodbine and it’s strange how many horsepeople don’t understand that writing about is just a way of saying ‘hey, let’s make this a great game’.I love it but it’s hard to love sometimes.Thanks for your post at my site tooJen
My feelings equaled yours, I also wrote about it, and I feel as if some people in the business will hold that against me.How many headlines on Wanderin Boy’s breakdown?Geeze, I love this game as much as anyone, I’d fight for its survival—can we still not have the horses’ backs? Can we still not make every effort to make the animals healthier and happier? Don’t they at least deserve that?After expressing my feelings Saturday night (revulsion triggered an overly dramatic reaction for which I apologized), I could almost here the Ooohh, as if I’d just broken the code, the law of Shush–I had entered the taboo. I’d bitten the horse that feeds me. I had changed teams.I love this game, want to be part of it forever and ever—-ambivalence is right. I’m not sure I’d have the courage to share my feelings, as you did, when that happens again. Shame on me. Shame on everyone else who doesn’t at least use Wanderin Boy as an impetus to make horses happier and healthier in some way.Out of respect.The Trader signing off
Your Anonymous commenter would do well to heed, the lesson within, a joke I heard recently:The government was putting together a covert and highly dangerous operation that would infiltrate and hunt down terrorist operations. Their final choices consisted of a Marine drill sergeant, a Navy Seal and a woman from Brooklyn. The government agent tells the three of them that their respective spouses are in the adjoining room and they have to take the gun that he will provide them and go in there and kill them.The Marine goes in first but upon seeing his wife he marches out, salutes the government agent and resigns from the Marines for his failure to complete the mission.The seal walks in next and points the gun at his wife but then breaks down and throws himself on her, crying and asking for forgiveness. The government agent dismisses him with disdain.Finally the woman from Brooklyn saunters into the room, calmly raises the gun and fires the whole clip into her husband. Then, there is a huge ruckus heard within, furniture breaking, screaming and blunt impact noises. The government agent rushes into the room and sees the husband bleeding and mangled on the floor and turns in horror to the woman “What the hell happened?”The woman, not a hair on her head out of place and a pulse barely above flatline, says “The stupid gun only had blanks in it so I had to take it and beat the cheating SOB to death.”I will read your maudlin crap any day.
How easy it is to criticize under the “Anonymous” banner. Like the others, I’ll take your maudlin crap any day over some insensitive unfeeling jerk’s comments.
On the Sunday after the Cigar Mile, I went through the various Blog Posts in the Blogosphere using the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance Feed and found no less than 10 different bloggers, including myself, who posted in some form about Wanderin Boy. Its part of the game we love, we talk about the wins, the defeats, and the injuries. Just like a hockey or football writer reports on injuries we write about injuries and unfortunately about the death that sometimes happens to these beautiful athletes. As for the anon. poster coming forward, don’t hold your breath.
I agree with Linda. I will read your “crap” any day and can relate to your feelings. Maybe that’s one of the reasons this whole year I’ve not been able to put my heart into the race season. I just need to recharge and step back a bit. It’s been too emotional. It doesn’t mean I don’t love the sport, I just need to heal my heart and take the time for my head and heart come together again while my personal life is keeping me so busy.
I would simply like to say thank you for your coverage of Wanderin Boy and for sharing your sadness with your readers. I follow the game because I love horses and although I’m in the minority for not gambling, I can thrill to the beauty of these elegant creatures and it is crushing to me emotionally to witness such atrocities. I checked this and the other blogs on Saturday to try to find some comfort for my despair, so thank you.
I’ll admit it. I saw the title of your post and was sure you were going to be talking about the Rangers and the Panthers.
Thanks, folks, for reading and for checking in. Nice to know that there are a few more maudlin folks out there…but I won’t hold you to that excessive drinking silliness thing. Hey, Winston, did you miss that “prim English teacher” part of the post? Ian, I laughed so loudly I scared the cats off the couch.