How weird that my favorite sport is one of the few live events on TV!
NBC sports searched frantically for something to broadcast in place of all those football, basketball, baseball competitions. Not even the Olympics survived the virus.
Enter the horse, to save the day. They race past the all-seeing cameras and empty stands. Did we know these elegant creatures don’t care that there are NO cheering crowds? They run to beat the other runners. They run to celebrate their creator.
It is written in Job: “Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane? Do you make it leap like a locust, striking terror with its proud snorting? It paws fiercely, rejoicing in its strength, and charges into the fray”.
Almost every person on the track wears masks and gloves. It’s surreal watching masked grooms lead the prancing steeds from the stables. Jockeys mount, hands gloved, but bare-faced, and perch bravely on explosive power. Pony riders are anonymous in masks and gloves. Their smiles or frowns are hidden as they escort the entries to equally unidentified gate handlers, who cajole the horses into the narrow metal jaws of the starting gates.
All across the country, stir-crazy house bound fans can forget all about the virus for that few minutes of excitement. They jump and scream for the ones they’ve picked to win the race as if those keen-eared equines could hear them.
Wava Devin Writing 