Follow The Yellow Brick Rode

by Ralph the Cat

It hit me the other night, the jockey colony at Mountaineer could make a great rendition of the Wizard of Oz. I think Murph would be the Tin Man, in search of a heart. I have much respect for Murph, he WAS one of the most polished riders to ever ride at Mountaineer and the times I spoke with him it was easy to like him. Unfortunately, his heart has always been in question, but now, at the age of 44 years old, his athletic ability might be just as big of a problem. If you didn't see an aged Murph in the saddle this past week, you have plenty of time to see the eye doctor by Saturdays card. He sat on numerous live mounts to start off the meet, but struggled to say the least, maybe his best ride came in a 3 horse race as he crawled away to win by nearly 9 lengths on the 3/5 favorite. Somebody get some oil to loosen up those joints of his, a heart wouldn't hurt either.

Tho Nguyen is clearly in search of a brain. With names like Stokes, Parker and Whitney not picking up a large number of the mounts, why on earth do guys like Vickers, Murphy, Ccamaque, Hernandez and Davila have more mounts than him? Yes, hes always been a "limited stable" kind of rider, but why on earth wouldn't he take advantage of the current situation? Like a scarecrow filled with straw, he can easily catch fire, but not unless he gets the mounts. He is obviously in search of a brain, or better yet, an agent.

Vickers can easily be considered the cowardly lion. His rides last year were awful at times. Not to mention hes one of the least stylish riders out there for sure. He doesn't appear to be much of a jockey, much like the Lion from the Wizard of Oz doesn't appear to be much of a lion. But by the end of the story, the lion realizes even though he looks like a panzy most of the time, hes brave enough to act in the face of fear, much like Vickers.

Rex fits the Wicked Witch of the East as good as any, with his girlish attributes and mind set at times. However, he often does things on horses that others cant, much like how the witch does things on a broom that others can't. The witch isn't in the movie much at all, but when she arrives she makes a big scene, much like the legitimate contenders that Rex stops by for. I just hope by the end of this movie, hes not around, much like the wicked witch of the east.

Lets get one thing straight though, much of the movie takes place in the Magical Land of Oz. Oswald Pereira sits one win shy of taking over the lead and will have the number of mounts it takes to win the academy award for "Best Jockey" to appear in a Mountaineer Meet.

While all this is going down, you can catch Chris Longshot hanging himself in the back ground with picks that even a Wizard can't figure out.

Hey, its the 70th anniversary of the movie, a remake might be possible.