don't give the trophy to a horse

triple crown races. kentucky derby. the preakness. belmont stakes. it's usually around this time of year when i'll hear certain experts, and sometimes not even experts, chime in and say something like, "winning the triple crown is the biggest achievement in all of sports." and i couldn't disagree any more with that statement. i don't think horses should even be under consideration to be compared to other athletes, the biggest reason being that sports is man made. we made up these silly contests and the silly rules that make someone a winner. all these trophies and medals are things we pull out of thin air. they're like money in that if you think about it in the abstract, it only means as much as we put behind it.

and horses don't get that. horses don't know why a trophy is a good thing. horses prefer carrots to trophies. at the end of any given horse race, i'm pretty certain that the first place horse and the last place horse both get fed and enjoy it just the same. neither feels glory or shame. they eat, poop, and follow blindly to the next place where the people who domesticated them like them to run real fast.

fortunes are made and lost on horse racing. people either sing a horse's praise or curse it dead. either way, that horse doesn't care. horses don't know about your crippling gambling addiction. horses don't know about your mortgage or how you were gonna spend the winnings on an awesome birthday party for your six year old. any and all pageantry has been added on by our imaginations. your fortune lost, all because collectively we imagined this thing together. bummer.

so next time you wanna give someone a trophy, or throw around a hefty sports related accolade, give it to someone who at the least can show some form of appreciation in return. what good is throwing greatness around if it can't be claimed? how can athletes like tom brady or lebron james be expected to sleep at night if they know no matter how hard they work for a goal they're absolutely conscious of, they'll be defeated by a majestic creature that will show the ultimate indifference in the end?