Horse Racing

A fan witnesses the risk of sports


I am a man of many parts. Certainly among them: sports fans.

Yes, the big three – basketball, rugby, baseball – plus soccer, hockey and of course horse racing.

I attended the Summer Olympics where I witnessed great athletics, swimming and boxing. I also watched two sports for the first time (and last time) – judo and team handball.

My father, before the interstate was complete, would drive my siblings to Crosley Field in Cincinnati to see our beloved Reds. As a young man, he took us to Kentucky football and basketball games at Stoll Field and Memorial Coliseum.

Many of my childhood heroes were athletes.

During the 1970s and early 80s, I attended many Cincinnati Bengals games with my longtime friend Chuck Oliver, who inherited season tickets from his father. In 1985, when Chuck moved from Indianapolis to Atlanta, he graciously shipped me a season pass. I’ve had them ever since.

I have root for Bengali. And, for many seasons, rooted the Bungles. My four kids are Bengals (and Reds) fans. Interestingly, the two currently live in Cincinnati. Another person lives in Ft. Thomas, Ky., is about a five-minute drive from the Ohio River football and baseball stadiums.

At the old Riverfront Stadium, my four Bengals seats were 14 rows from the field. Two seats on each side of the 50-yard line. Today, at Paycor Stadium (formerly Paul Brown Stadium), I’m at the 20-yard line, two seats in row 21, two seats right out front in row 20.

I rarely go to games on Thursday, Sunday or Monday nights for two reasons: 1) it’s about a 90-minute drive home; and 2) although I enjoy beer as much as the next guy, some fans have a tendency to binge too much on late-start contests.

However, I was at the stadium Monday night because my best friend, Donna, is a longtime Buffalo Bills fan and the thought of watching Joe Burrow play Josh Allen together was so tempting.

My daughter, Jennie, and her friend, Cole, also attended with us.

Wearing a Bengals hat and three layers of Bengals shirt, I was excited when “we” won the coin toss and pick the ball game. We did not delay into the second half. We want the ball.
When my favorite player, Tyler Boyd, caught the game’s first touch of the ball, the game was on.

Unfortunately, after Buffalo kicked in and the Bengal team started the second leg, the unthinkable happened. Tee Higgins catches a slant pass and is safely saved by Damar Hamlin.

I was looking straight at Hamlin as he stood up for only a few seconds, then fell to the ground. I know this is not a torn ACL, no nib, no concussion.

This is serious.

You really know it when they ask the players to surround the 24-year-old ex-player Pitt so the fans can’t see what’s going on.

As a horse racing fan, I think of the times when the track staff put up barricades to keep fans from witnessing a dead horse on the track.

Minutes seemed to last hours as emergency personnel worked in Hamlin. We saw them come off the oars. We couldn’t see them perform CPR, but asked other fans if that’s what’s going on.

We are very disturbed because the tournament has taken so long to cancel the match. A friend on Facebook reminded me that “corporations” take a long time to make decisions.

Indeed, NFL teams and the league itself are corporations.

Thankfully, the right decision was made. After seeing the players openly cry on the pitch, how can they calm themselves to continue?

But what if it’s a knockout? Or the Super Bowl? Will another decision be made? Do they agree to play the next day?

What happened to Hamlin is simply not a scenario you would expect to happen.

There’s a lot in the game – TV ad revenue, the meaning of the game, players doing their best to secure future contracts, etc. respect Damar Hamlin.

Racing fans are often reminded of this relationship between sport and business, such as when ponies are hastily taken to stalls and mares are mated more with the idea auction rather than racetrack.
In 1990, I went with my two brothers to the Breeders’ Cup in Belmont Park. We have great seats outside the sixteenth column. Distaff was a tight match between the Bayakoa and Go For Wand champions, until the latter fell right in front of us and had to be humanely destroyed.

My younger brother, not a big racing fan, broke up with us. He goes to the train station and leaves, unable to stay after witnessing the tragedy unfold.

My brother and I stayed. We came to see Unbridled, who won the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Also, I think, as racing fans, it’s easy for us to accept that horses are, sadly, broken sometimes.

Now, however, I wonder, what if jockey Randy Romero, who was not seriously injured, lay on the track as long as Damar Hamlin was on the field?
In football, the players are the athletes. In the race, there are two runners – the human athlete and the equestrian.

All athletes – and in the case of horses, owners and trainers – know that there is some degree of risk in what they do.

However, there is a wide range in that level of risk. Certainly horses and jockeys have a higher level of risk than someone competing in table tennis.

Even though footballers have a high level of risk, it seems that Hamlin’s Higgins tackle is not too difficult. Listed at the time of this writing in critical condition, medical experts hope to shed light on the cause of his cardiac event.

What I witnessed at Paycor Stadium was horrible. It made me dizzy, stunned, bewildered.

It also reminds me of something important. While I’m a sports fan and support certain teams as well as against certain teams, it’s just a game after all.

The health and well-being of athletes must always come first.

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