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What I savoured during the past year;

THE SAVE..June 12^th gave us the grizzled Detroit Red Wings as host to a Game Seven battle with the upstart Pittsburgh Penguins, Lord Stanley’s hallowed Cup in the balance. The Red Wings, defending champs, were favoured at Joe Louis but the Penguins had won three consecutive series on the road and arrived with massive confidence. I had arrived back in Toronto a few hours earlier, after a month long sojourn in Ireland, and was desperate to watch some stupendous hockey. The game exceeded my expectations, as did the hospitality and merriment of the bar I chose to attend, a place I had passed by a few times, the Rails and Ales (we know how that turned out). After a scoreless first period, the Penguins stunned the locals when Max Talbot potted two goals in the second. With six minutes left in the third Jonathon Ericsson initiated the inevitable Motown surge with a knuckleball of a shot that brought the crowd, including Muhammad Ali and Thomas Hearns, to their collective feet. In the final seconds, with Chris Osgood perched on the Red Wing bench, the Red Wings won a face-off and Henrik Zetterberg slapped a puck at the Penguins goal. Goalie Marc Andre Fleury kicked it away, but the puck landed on the stick of a wide open Nicklas Lidstrom. Looking at nothing but net, the legendary player fired what would surely be the tying goal…and then, the save. It should be recorded in poems and song, the moment young Fleury ripped the Cup from Detroit hands with a blocker save that was both improbable and magnificent…

THE RACE…the Arc in October from France provided this inveterate horseplayer with one of the greatest thrills of a lifetime spent watching the ponies…Racing Meridian 2009 Athlete of the Year, Sea The Stars, earned the title with a run through the lawns of Longchamp that was spectacular, infuriating and unparalleled. The colt had grown increasingly precocious through his three year old campaign and it became apparent his headstrong tendencies had the potential to sabotage his perfect campaign. In the Arc the colt blitzed his foes within the first furlong and edged to a narrow lead…precisely the opposite of the strategy cultivated by John Oxx and Mick Kinane. As the Irish jockey attempted to pull the colt back through the field and into his customary striking position, Sea The Stars suddenly bristled and began to engage his rider in “out and out” warfare. Horses piled past as Sea The Stars tossed his head and lost his focus. He fell ten lengths behind, then fifteen…then over twenty. I was filled with anguish and anger as the colt’s impetuousness seemed to have caused an unmitigated disaster and a horrible end to a breathtaking year. And then…he calmed, he found the strength to reunite his passions with those of Kinane, and he began to charge. With a quarter of a mile to go the colt looked like a celestial reckoning of an angel on fire, carousing and storming his way past all foes and, finally, embracing the place his talent and heart demanded, the front of the pack…

THE WARRIOR…in a seriously contrarian gesture, the Meridian embraces the defeated and valiant warrior, Miguel Cotto, as the Fighter of the Year. The Puerto Rican, it is clear, will never fully recover from the hellacious and illegal beating he took at the hands (loaded hands, that is) of Antonio Margarito. Mustering all of his diminishing resources, Cotto opted to make a stand of breathtaking courage and fortitude against the marauding talents of the great Manny Pacquiao. Executing a strategy with cunning and verve, Cotto found himself unquestionably outgunned and subjected to yet another thrashing. He made a difficult decision during those very dark moments, an affirmation of the motivation coiled around his very soul, and continued with a persistence and passion that shone a light on the nobility and spirit of the beaten Warrior. The appalling resources of the human essence were unravelled as Cotto turned the battle into the Fight of the Year. Grace under pressure? This was heroism under the battering of an all-time great’s rapacious fists. The poise of Miguel Cotto, as he spent his final reserves during an epic confrontation, illuminated how potent a human can be in the face of the most horrendous and implaccable circumstances…

Okay, back to the present..

PONIES..very interesting bit of news concerning Kentucky Derby favourite Lookin At Lucky. Bob Baffert revealed to The Bloodhorse that the colt was foaled May 27^th, meaning he will still be two at the time of the May 1^stDerby. His competitors could be as much as four to five months older, an important consideration when the animals are so young. Big time caution when approaching this animal in your future pools…Baffert also mentioned Tiz Chrome and Take Control, a son of Azeri, as two other highly regarded Derby prospects in his barn…one of Baffert’s other prospects, Clutch Player, contacted pneumonia in late December and passed away…Jennifer Morrison has tipped a Sam Son runner, Giant’s Tomb, as one to watch when the road to the Queen’s Plate gets underway…

PUG LIFE..thankfully, Jermain Taylor has announced he has pulled out of Showtime’s Super-Middleweight tournament and will not be fighting Andre Ward. The former middleweight champion of the world has been the recipient of three hellacious knockouts in recent fights and is in serious need of a new career…

MEDIA..a very funny piece, inadvertently, appeared in the Toronto Star yesterday, detailing the reasons why the Canadian historical publication “The Beaver” has opted, after 90 years, to change its name. It was wryly noted that the average visit to the magazine’s website lasted eight seconds, suggesting the content available was not what surfers had hoped to find…