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The Horse Whispering
by Rick
Reilly
Posted: Tue June 2, 1998
So I
was
walking home from that new Robert Redford movie when I
heard somebody in the alley go, "Hey,
buddy."
It was
pitch-black.
Who's in
there? I said,
loudly.
"Real Quiet," said a
voice.
Who's in
there? I
whispered.
"No, you moron! Real Quiet, the horse! And
lemme tell you, pal, I ain't staying real quiet
anymore."
What, you're changing your
name?
"No, you mule! I can't stay real quiet anymore because
I'm so hacked
off!"
Come out into the light where I can see
you.
"No chance. I'm breaking training. Lemme ask you
something: What do they want me to
do?"
Please?
"I go to the Kentucky Derby, I win in a thriller. I go
to the Preakness, I'm six wide on the final turn, and I
still blow everybody away. On Saturday, I can become the
first horse in 20 years to win the Triple damn Crown, and
people are
riding
me!"
See, those are the
jockeys.
"Not the jockeys! All these turf writers! They're
saying I'm a fluke, a joke, a disgrace! The way these guys
talk, I oughta be in
Tijuana, wearing a straw hat and pulling tourists around
for photos and tips! O.K., a lot of the good
three-year-olds were
hurt this season. It's not like they did it playing
cribbage. I ran the same races they ran. Durability oughta
count for something,
right?"
Seems to in other
sports.
"I mean, I ain't Mr. Ed
here!"
Well, there
are certain
similarities.
"They talk about my 0-6 start. They rag on my $17,000
price tag. They say I'm
ugly."
They do call you Fish, don't they, because as a yearling
you looked so narrow from straight on and your hooves
turned out like
fins?
"Hey! You rent that forehead out for
billboards?"
Point
made.
"I mean, this guy Andrew Beyer of
The Washington
Post went so far as to write, 'If a horse of this quality
sweeps the Triple Crown, then the Triple Crown is
diminished.'"
You
subscribe?
"Does this geek have any idea how hard it is to win
one, forget all three? I mean, you got some midget Joan
Crawford beating on you, and you got more pounds thundering
next to you than an
80-percent-off sale at Big and Beautiful, and you win anyway, and then
some sniff like Beyer says you're diminishing the Triple
Crown?"
Horsepuck?
"Exactly. Hey, I don't have blinders on here. You know
why these guys are sweating me? It's because they
didn't pick me to win! Beyer didn't pick me to win the
Derby or even the Preakness until Coronado's Quest broke
down. I made him look stupid! He's
got this number system everybody's supposed to buy. Well, if
the Beyer Speed Figures are so freaking swift, how come
he's still
writing?"
Listen—
"It's not just the writers. The racing crowd is
smacking me because they don't like the guys I run with. My
owner, Mike Pegram, the guy that owns all the McDonalds?
He's not exactly their type because he didn't come to his
money the way they did—out of
the birth canal. He had to
work for his. Racing wants people who eat arugula and speak
fluent trust
fund.
"My trainer, Bob Baffert, with the mop of white hair,
he's not one of them, either. He shows up at the barn at
8:30 instead of 5 a.m., and it bugs 'em because he's
become the best trainer in racing.
"All of us are kinda outcasts, and that's why, even
though I'm right on the doorstep of the Triple Crown,
people act like I
oughta be in the
circus."
Or a bottle of
Elmer's.
"That's not
funny."
Sorry.
"So, anyway, I just want all these losers to know that
if I win the Belmont on Saturday, my name goes up there
with Citation and Secretariat, and I don't give half an oat
who likes
it."
Can I ask you one
question?
"Shoot."
Did you like the
movie?
"Nah."
Why
not?
"Too
far-fetched."
Tell us what you think. Sound off on the CNN/SI Message Boards.
Past Editions of Life of Reilly
photograph by Robert Beck
Issue date: June 8, 1998
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