Library: a Horse I Mean

Somewhat surprisingly to the thoroughbred racing world, the racehorse Sovereignty ran, by handler choice, in but two legs of this year’s Triple Crown for three-year-old colts, the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes. He was not known to be injured during the five-week Triple Crown stretch. For whatever reason, maybe having to do with getting his proper downtime, maybe to do with breeding contingencies, he was withheld from the Preakness, the middle of the three races.

Sovereignty won both of his races fairly easily, beating out a horse named Journalism each time. Journalism! In a sport of sometimes crazy names, this one seems particularly off-center. Neither race was an Affirmed/Alydar duel down the home stretch, the three-time highlight of 1978’s Triple Crown. But Journalism did win the Preakness, which puts his name, too, in the record books at the Keenland Library for thoroughbreds in Kentucky. There is such a library.

My curiosity was peaked after it was all over. Not about why Sovereignty’s handlers passed up the chance to saddle a Triple Crown winner, of which, by the way, there are only thirteen to date after 151 Kentucky Derbies, but about the literary name Journalism.

It prompts the question about whether a horse named Library ever ran as a thoroughbred? The answer is yes, and there have been, apparently, at least two of them.

There is a racing library on-line called Equibase. It lists a horse named Library, foaled on March 13. 2022. He has raced nine times and has never finished in the betting money. His career earnings are a mere $2,740, hardly enough to keep him in shoes. For perspective, Sovereignty earned more than $3 million for winning the Kentucky Derby alone. Journalism’s purse for the Preakness win was $1.2 million.

Another thoroughbred called Library shows up in another on-line database, named RacingSportsä. This Library was foaled in Ireland on February 27, 2020. She is a bay mare, with interesting parentage at least. She was sired by Galileo and is out of Words. Yes, Words is the dam’s name. In twelve starts, this Library claims two wins and five places. Her total purse is $246,341. At least, that will keep her in shoes for a while.

You may have noticed that this column mostly capitalizes the first letter in the word “Library,” as that word pertains to a “holy” place for books and community programs. It is the suggestion of Connie Cauvel, past President of the Murrysville Community Library Foundation, that that be so, as a statement for how vital Libraries are to the community and the public good. No argument about that here.

These two racehorses named Library, the “L” capitalized, will never dilute the word Library as community centerpiece. Not in the way Man o’ War of racing fame may rise to top of mind over the dictionary words for a warship or the bird of same name, nor as might Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown phenom, come to mind before Secretariat of the U.N. No, not much chance. And Journalism with bent shoes, with only the Preakness to claim, does not rise in mind above true professional journalism, which, like public Library, is widely understood, and highly valued, as symbolic of a working Democracy.

In fact, it is why we, locally, so eagerly welcome back the Penn-Franklin News, a vital community institution, and its journalism. Journalism and Library, indeed!