Drinking Strange Brew with the McKenzie Brothers

The Strange Brew, run each January at Delaware, has always been my favorite stakes as a writer. There are stakes with more prestige, and greater purses, but somehow, no other race has captured my imagination like the Strange Brew. I first stumbled upon it in 2002, during my first year as the Delaware beat reporter, and it simply fired up my imagination, as each year I would try to figure out ways to build on the movie references from the year before.

This was the first year since I started playing the sim that I didn’t cover this race (chill did a fine job), and perhaps it is just as well. This time, I actually had a runner in the race, Seeking Sal, fresh off a runner-up effort on DelPenn Champions Day. Much to my delight, Seeking Sal won the seventh running of this race by four lengths with a typical fine ride by perennial leading jock Herbert Ross. Highest Love made a nice move late to finish best of the rest, while never threatening the winner. Cry of the Fox pressed the pace early, then tired, but was still good enough to hold on to third. Last year’s winner, Lyric Poet (who holds the stakes record of 1:47 3/5), was the major disappointment, fading to last. When asked about the win, Ross jokingly said, “The power of the force has stopped you, you hosers.” Smiling, he continued on, “No seriously, Seeking Sal is an honest horse, tries real hard and gives you everything he’s got. It’s horses like this that make my job easy.”

So, this time, instead of interviewing the winning connections, I was the owner getting to drink Canadian beer out of the winner’s trophy, hoping that Bob and Doug hadn’t smuggled a mouse into the bottom of it. I don’t remember too much else about the ceremony, and my head hurts today, but I’m sure a fun time was had by all. Beauty, eh? Thanks for the memories, Sal.