PB story continues...

[j_cheney]

19K, and the horses are at the starting line....I do know which horse is going to win, BTW. I expect to finished the hideously sloppy first rough draft tonight, and it should clock in between 21 and 22 K.

Then I'll let it sit for a while, do some desultory research on horse racing and how you go about replacing your jockey at the last minute. (in terms of whom you have to tell...The Saratoga Racing Association?)

I'm dethroning the horse who actually won the Hopeful Stakes in 1905. However, I'll bet there would be a high percentage of people (if this ever gets published) who:
a) don't even know that there was a Hopeful Stakes in 1905 (say, 85%)
b) don't know there was horse racing in Saratoga Springs in 1905 (70%)
c) don't know that there really is a town called Saratoga Springs (60%)
d) don't know what a stakes races is (60%)
e) don't know what a jockey is (20% probably need the word 'disc' in front of it)
f) don't care about verisimilitude anyway.... (10%)

It's a terrible rough draft.

Comments

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

And you probalby actually know what a sulky racer is... ;o) How about that for an obscure term.

[snickelish.livejournal.com]

Gotta confess, I had to Google this, and then I remembered what it was. I knew the concept but had forgotten the term.

Tee hee. I just saw The Music Man last week and Robert Preston's line from "Ya Got Trouble" always makes me giggle: "Hearin' him tell about horse-race gamblin', not a wholesome trottin' race, no, but a race where they set down right on the horse!" And everybody gasps. :p

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

So many things that today's high schools students have no chance of understanding....