Sepia Saturday Number # 47
Churchill Downs
Churchill Downs
In 1955 Sports Illustrated was first published and, wanting their magazine to stand
out from the rest of the sports oriented magazines, hired Nobel prize winner William Faulkner to come to Louisville to watch and write about the Derby. What better way was there to set Sports Illustrated apart from the rest of the sports rags?Faulkner always painted scenes with a broad brush and opened his piece by writing about Daniel Boone’s exploration and opening of Kentucky to people wanting to settle here. He ended his narrative without bothering to mention the name of the horse who won the Derby that year.
It was Swaps ridden by Willie Shewmaker.
“Only a little over two minutes: one simultaneous metallic clash as the gates spring. Though you do not really know what it was you hear: whether it was that metallic crash, or the simultaneous thunder of the hooves in that first leap or the massed voices, the gasp, the exhalation--whatever it was, the clump of horses indistinguishable yet, like a brown wave dotted with the bright silks of the riders
like chips flowing toward us along the rail until, approaching, we can begin to distinguish individuals, streaming past us now as individual horses--horses which (including the rider) once stood about eight feet tall and 10 feet long, now look like arrows twice that length and less than half that thickness, shooting past and bunching again as perspective diminishes, then becoming individual horses once more about the turn into the backstretch, streaming on, to bunch for the last time into the homestretch itself, then again individuals, individual horses, the individual horse, the Horse: 2:01 4/5 minutes."
Lots of things have changed at Churchill Downs but the
Twin Spires will stand til the LAST horse is run.
Go here to see more Sepia Saturday
Day 6 grateful for the wonderful woman Madonna who teaches me basket making.
I am so blessed to have her for my friend now.
Grateful for all my artistic friends who help make my life so full of joy.
Thank dear God for friends.
like chips flowing toward us along the rail until, approaching, we can begin to distinguish individuals, streaming past us now as individual horses--horses which (including the rider) once stood about eight feet tall and 10 feet long, now look like arrows twice that length and less than half that thickness, shooting past and bunching again as perspective diminishes, then becoming individual horses once more about the turn into the backstretch, streaming on, to bunch for the last time into the homestretch itself, then again individuals, individual horses, the individual horse, the Horse: 2:01 4/5 minutes."Lots of things have changed at Churchill Downs but the
Twin Spires will stand til the LAST horse is run.
Go here to see more Sepia Saturday
Day 6 grateful for the wonderful woman Madonna who teaches me basket making.
I am so blessed to have her for my friend now.
Grateful for all my artistic friends who help make my life so full of joy.
Thank dear God for friends.
7 comments:
The story of Faulkner writing about the race is new to me, but oh can he write! He is like some news reporters who leave out the most important thing, but perhaps he can be forgiven.
I'm Off Down To The Betting Office this afternoon to see if SWAPS is running today! If so,My money is on him!
"Up with The Downs," say I.
Perhaps he wrote the story before the race. Always meant to update it but was off to another story and left it as it was.
I just happened to run across this story because of the pictures and the sepia of Churchill Downs. I am sure the magazine had the picture of the winning horse and rider and owner and trainer and just wanted Faulkner's magic of the descriptive word from the literary artist's point of view.
QMM
Very interesting...I wasn't familiar with this story. We recently saw the movie "Secretariat". It was a great movie! Have you seen it?
Descriptive magic, indeed! He took me right there, to the front of the racetrack, watching, breathless! It's a great post and I love the photos!
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