Freak Show

By Jude T. Feld

P.T. Barnum never envisioned a freak show like this.

Forget about Siamese twins and bearded ladies, giraffe women and two-headed snakes.

In case you missed it, the “greatest show on earth” happened Sunday. Sports fans were treated to two other types of freaks – Tiger Woods and War Pass.

Bill Shoemaker, Babe Ruth, Johnny Unitas, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretsky and Mohammed Ali are all a bunch of losers when you compare their stats to Tiger Woods. This man is in a whole different dimension and plays one of the most unforgiving sports ever invented.

Tiger’s performance in the Accenture Match Play Championship was a thing of beauty. It was like a Carlos Santana solo – wild and cool and smooth all wrapped up together and making you long for more.

If the story is true – that Tiger has photos of Jesus playing golf with Satan – then he is just a fortunate guy. But if they don’t really exist, he is the most talented athlete that ever lived.

If Tiger lived in ancient Greece, he’d reside in a temple. He is the closest thing to a deity currently living on earth and us mere mortals are blessed with being able to watch him perform miracle after miracle from the privacy of our living rooms several weeks a year.

Speaking of “blessed,” that’s Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito’s favorite description of himself.

Zito won the Fountain of Youth (G2) at Gulfstream Park with Cool Coal Man on Sunday and for many trainers, that would be a lifetime-type victory, but for multi Kentucky Derby-winning conditioner, it was another day at the office and he had bigger fish to fry.

HRTV analyst Jeff Siegel chuckled after Cool Coal Man’s victory, “It’s the old racetrack story of we got one in the barn that’s better.”

Only this time, it was true.

War Pass, an ultra-brilliant son of Cherokee Run and last year’s two-year-old champion, waltzed home an easy winner over a thin field of allowance colts in his first start as a three-year-old, half an hour after Zito received the crystal for the Fountain of Youth (G2).

He is a perfect five-for-five now and although many pundits think his speed might kill him in the Kentucky Derby (G1), “Where he stops, nobody knows.” War Pass has the best pace and speed figures of any colt considered a Derby hopeful – by far, and his performance Sunday did nothing to dispel any confidence that, “He is a total freak,” as my nephew Sean so aptly put it.

Pyro won the Risen Star (G3) at Fair Grounds in his comeback race earlier this month and was visually impressive doing it. He is “the buzz horse” and currently War Pass’s biggest fear, but in their three previous matchups, Pyro, never even made War Pass break a sweat, finishing second every time.

Zito is blessed with Cool Coal Man and War Pass but he is also blessed with Hall of Fame talent. Like Michelangelo, who “let the statue out of the rock,” Zito knows how to get the best out of his horses. If any man can get War Pass to run a mile and a quarter at a top level, Zito can.

Rory Sabatini thinks he can beat Tiger Woods and I’m sure Pyro’s connections think they can run down War Pass with “an honest pace,” but remember the words of P.T. Barnum, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 11:40 am and is filed under Featured Articles. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.