Barbaro Updates: 601
udates are now here.
Update 3562: A brief photo essay of racing in England: Newmarket Visit Pics: 4 John & Donna.
Update 3561: Big Brown, as anticipated, worked this morning at Belmont Park: Belmont News: Tuesday.
Update 3560: Superfecta here, with your regular weekly update -- this week is something of a short jog off the Triple Crown trail.
Louise Firouz, the renowned horse breeder who rediscovered the Caspian horse, has died in Iran. Although still very rare, the breed (which DNA analysis has demonstrated to be the likely ancestor of Arabians and other eastern breeds -- and thus, by extension, thoroughbreds) was recognized and revived by the American-born Firouz, at enormous personal cost due to the political situation in Iran.
Although pony-sized (between 9-12 hands), the Caspian is a small horse, rather than a pony; similar horses appear in ancient near eastern art dating back to 3000 BCE; no less an authority than King Darius the Great (reigned 521-486 BCE) featured similar horses on his cylinder seal (now in the British Museum). They also appear in a frieze of Lydians bearing tribute to Darius on the monumental eastern stairway of the Apadana, the great hall at Persepolis (Pārsa, to the Persian kings), begun by Darius and completed by his son Xerxes.
Even today, their diminutive size and early maturity are not the only unusual biological aspects of the Caspian; they also have an extra molar and other distinctive skeletal characteristics that set them apart from modern horse breeds. Although they can breed as early as 18 months, mares often do not come into heat again until their current foal is about a year old; that fact, combined with inconvenient politics, has contributed in no small way to their endangered status.
Ensuring the future of this ancient breed would be a worthy tribute to Louise Firouz; without Caspian horses and thousands of years of careful breeding, we would not have a potential Triple Crown on the line in Big Brown.
We'll have more on his present-day quest tomorrow...
Update 3559: A damp morning this morning at Woodbine. One of those mornings where you are not sure whether to put on rain gear or not. We had a lot of workers, which meant a lighter day for me with only five to go to the track. Of the five, I was close to coming unglued on a couple, so even with a lighter day you can never be assured it will be an easy day. One horse coming on to the track leapt forward while then bucking ... my left hand which is wrapped around the neckstrap, came unstuck. Fortunately I landed pretty much in the right place in the saddle. Another guy wheeled pretty sharply, but again thankfully I was holding on to the neckstrap. Anyway, I survived ...
Update 3558: Monday's Belmont activity: Belmont News: Monday.
Please keep calling and writing.
I loved the photo of Tale of Ekati and Funny Cide!Is there any hope that Funny Cide might accompany him to the post, or would that be too stressful for Funny Cide? He was always one of my favorites.
Posted by: Barbara, NC at June 3, 2008 11:05 AM