I have never been a huge horse-racing fan, but I do pay attention to the Kentucky Derby because it is tied into a memory that I have of my beloved mother. As a bonus, her boss gave her a weekend in Owensboro, KY, to see the hottie of her dreams, Tom Jones, perform. As we discovered, *Derby Weekend* in Kentucky is a mega-event. (But that's another story and another post!)

I qualify my attention to horse racing because I'm rather surprised myself that I have become so attentive to updates on the condition of Barbaro. When the reports have been good, I have been joyful. When he suffered a setback and developed laminitis, I cried and cried ~ and prayed all the harder for him to be well. Yes, I am an animal lover ~ as you could probably tell from my post on Chelsie ~ but my empathy for Barbaro has run much deeper than expected for just a casual horse-racing watcher. I can't even say that I'm a fan because I don't watch that much.

However, I am, generally, a sports fan who hangs out at online sports Web sites, and at one of them I found a wonderful article that helped to explain me to me. This article by Phil Taylor, "National Treasure: Barbaro's Grace and Spirit Has Touched Us All," at the Sports Illustrated Web site is worth your time: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/phil_taylor/07/19/barbaro/