YOUR POWER OF WINNING CAN HAPPEN ANYTIME!
While driving, sometimes my best thoughts just seem to find me. I like this story because not only is it about winning, but also your state of mind and how it can take you places. Places where deliberately where you want to go. One day my mind started to roam about some famous and amazing Thoroughbred horse racing that has been witnessed over the years by hundreds and thousands of spectators, some observers, and some gamblers. It has always been my opinion that horse racing always seems to bring out the best of the best. If you can believe that there are anywhere from six to twelve and sometimes even 20 horses all out for that big number one position which usually always also carries with it a cash prize. It isn’t the horse either that really always shows up for the race. It's all the people involved with the ownership, and training that has the real stake in it. Somehow they derive their pleasure seeing it run until hopefully, it crosses the finish line in the right order. Then there are the bettors, some of whom will put their last ten bucks on a race because they are certain they have picked the right horse to win. No guarantee of course.
The owners, the trainers, the jockeys,the agents, the riders for warm-up, the groomers and the barn help, they all know that. Something keeps them coming back for the next race though. What do you suppose that is? Maybe knowing you were part of something successful. A winning team perhaps.
One thing is for sure…..like anything, if you have the time to do it, it is only then a matter of time until you find the right combination and success shows up.
This reminds me of the 1995 Kentucky Derby. One of the trainers at the time D. Wayne Lucas had a horse in his stable by the name of “Prince of Thieves”. The other horse he sent to race was ‘Grindstone’. If you are a horse race handicapper, you would have noticed that both of the riding Jockeys were top ranked. Pat Day rode on Prince of Thieves who appeared to be the favored horse to win that day. Grindstone, ridden that day by Jerry Bailey, was not even considered a contender. It seemed like Prince of Thieves never even made an effort. “He didn’t fire” as they say at the track. Grindstone who laid back throughout the race came out of nowhere in the final stretch of the race to win and shocked everyone. Unfortunately, though, that was Grindstone’s last race as he had injured himself, which meant not running in the second race of the Triple Crown and leaving his only contribution as horse racing retired as a stud for breeding. The next that happened was Lukas deciding to take Pat Day off of Prince of Thieves and let Jerry Bailey run on it for the up and coming Preakness.
Pat Day, of course, was quite dissed about this, as well considering the fact that he had already previously won four Preakness races. That’s right! Four! That is like taking Wayne Gretzky off the ice for the next game after winning a hockey game. Either way, it certainly got everyone’s attention and stirred things up. So, of course, two weeks after that at the Preakness race, in came Bailey to ride the favorite horse for the race, Prince of Thieves. Remember that was Lukas’s horse. Being high profile with his past success’s Lukas was once again interviewed before this famous race in front of the eyes of the rest of the world. After being rejected Pat Day did manage to find another race with a horse named Louis Quatorze which was a 10-1 longshot. Day took the whole race putting Quatorze across the finish line in supersonic speed with a record matching time leaving Prince of Thieves in the dust.
As Pat Day smoothly went across the finish line to victory he valiantly looked sideways over to where Lukas was in the stands. The whole world saw it on T.V. as Pat Day flared up his hand with all he could muster and he yelled ‘FIVE’! ‘FIVE’! That’s right that was the fifth Preakness now under his belt. I think he actually meant something else. Like “UP YOURS! “
For anyone who saw this, you know he made his point. For anyone who has had that experience, you know, being second-guessed, put in the back row to watch the back of everyone’s heads, thrown out with the garbage, we can all relate to Pat Day.
For anyone that has had the honors, that created what looked like the impossible and pulled it off even when all the doubters stood by and watched because they didn’t believe, once you do this no one can take that away from you. No one. Pat Day knew he was a winner long before. If you do all the right things long enough, eventually it has to show up in the marketplace. It all starts with your own thinking. It’s your turn, to show the World your “FIVE!”
