kantharos more than a pretty vase

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archaeology, etrusca pottery, history, kantharos

The winner of the Bashford Manor Stakes at Churchill Saturday carries an interesting name: Kantharos.

A kantharos is a classical cup or vessel for holding a liquid (somehow, I doubt they put porridge in these things). Typically,the kantharos is an open-faced vessel with handles on each side. Sometimes it is decorated with figures or with carvings on the surface.

Breeder Lena Hedberg is the daughter of an archaeologist and spent part of the summer in 2008 helping her mother catalog pottery shards from an ancient Etruscan site, where her mother and other archaeologists found many pieces of these ancient objects.

That led Hedberg to name the charming chestnut colt she bred in 2008 for the classical cup.

Kantharos is the fourth foal from Hedberg’s mare Contessa Halo (by Southern Halo).

The others are 2005 Ikigai (G3 Mr Prospector Stakes), Boniface (5th in Culver City Handicap last Friday), and Halos in the Hall (sixth in the Vooter Lopning at Jagersro in Sweden on Saturday).

The mare had an empty year after Kantharos, then produced a filly by Speightstown this year and is back in foal to Flower Alley. The mare lives at Hedberg Hall near Mount Sterling, Ky.

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the genesis of excitement

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competition, history, interest in sport, psychology of racing

In his most recent post at The Pedigree Curmudgeon, John Sparkman asks readers about the experiences that brought them to racing, which most of us think of as hobby, unrelenting fun, avocation, passion, entertainment, or obsession.

The path that led me to racing began early. After a dash of earlier exposure to the sport, the 1970 Triple Crown really caught my attention. Holding it was the impressive part at that age, but the combination of a continuing narrative, a long history with some exotic elements, and a lot of beautiful horses made the sport something I came back to repeatedly.

Year by year, my understanding of racing grew, and as I understood more about the sport, my appreciation of it increased.

There were two tremendous stories in the Triple Crown of 1970 that held my interest. The story that everyone knew in the months leading to the Kentucky Derby was that the great trainer Hirsch Jacobs had mated two of his greatest horses — Affectionately and Hail to Reason — to produce the colt Personality.

Adding to the drama, Jacobs had died before the colt had realized his potential, but his son was training both Personality and the previous year’s Futurity Stakes winner High Echelon with high hopes of making the classics. That’s a sufficiently sentimental story to attract the attention of any youngster.

But it wasn’t just a softly told tale. The two colts were proving themselves the real thing on the racetrack. Of the two, Personality seemed to be progressing better in that April 40 years ago. For the Wood Memorial, Personality ran his best race to date, winning his first stakes and making the Jacobs entry the second favorite in the Kentucky Derby.

The classic itself was a disaster for Personality, who plugged around the muddy (officially good) track to finish eighth. But his stablemate High Echelon, after running last for more than half the race, came along with a game finish to take third, only a half-length behind Derby favorite My Dad George.

The winner was a tidy little chestnut colt named Dust Commander, who is the second story of the Triple Crown and will be covered in more detail in my next post.

Personality came back in the Preakness to win nicely. Among the boys and girls I’d interested in my dawning obsession, Personality had not been considered up to snuff following his dismal defeat in the Derby. For whatever youthful reason, I had held firm to my earlier selection, and the bay colt provided me with the elation of victory that only I had expected.

When Personality was scratched from the Belmont, I was almost resigned to expect nothing of interest, but his stablemate High Echelon was there instead. Trailing early once more, the gray splashed through the slop at Belmont Park on a very gray day to win the longest classic and set the seal on the my connection with the most exciting sport in the world.

the arc of winter

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calendar, climate, history, myth, numa pompilius, weather, winter

The Roman ruler Numa Pompilius gets the credit for adding the months of January and February to the calendar. This raises the question, “What did the Romans do about winter before adding them?” Presumably, while the folks in Rome were trotting around the rim of the Mediterranean, the weather was so mild that a change of season didn’t make much difference, and they could have winter just whenever the old thing came blowing into town for a few days.

Is it any wonder they were overrun by the Huns?

At any rate, the end of January and the first half or so of February are the dark beast of winter here in Kentucky. This is the dim arc of winter with shortened days, overcast skies, and temperatures cold enough to freeze the tail hairs off a bunny.

This year, in particular, has been notable for stretches of deep freezing temperatures, which have not been parochial and have moved around much of the South, Midwest, and Eastern to Mid-Atlantic states to spread the sensation.

But there is a joy in February because every horse owner and farm worker knows that every mild day causes fresh grass to rise out of the cold earth. Farmers are preparing to put in frost seedings of new grasses, and birds are sometimes seen flying north as if they know there are better days ahead.

There are.

There also are better days ahead for racing. And there are better days ahead for breeding and selling racehorses.

But before we look ahead to frolicking foals, warm afternoons, and the blooming buds that herald the start of racing at Keeneland, let’s look back on winter, frozen and stiff but not quite dead.

Numa Pompilius somehow got it right with the addition of the winter months that made the calendar mostly mimic the lunar cycle, rather than have winter cavorting all over the place.

And for his good work, the Roman ruler found some later recognition through a much later namesake in a good son of Dr. Fager. The equine Numa Pompilius was useful overseas, running second in the G3 Prix Saint-Roman at 2. After repatriation to the States, Numa Pompilius won the Cortez Handicap, placed in the San Simeon, was the show in the Caballero and Inglewood handicaps.

A good horse even makes winter seem shorter.