Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

My work at Saratoga’s National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame has provided more insight to thoroughbred racing than most civilians will ever have. I like the place because it has so much art, sculpture, history and, above all, stories to tell.

Winston Churchill’s American grandfather is here and so is the Wall Street tycoon for whom Man o’ War is named. Fancy the real life Downton Abbey story? We got it. Ever wonder how steeplechase got its name? Just ask. Why did the stopwatch become mass produced? I can tell you. When a certain wealthy founder of the track died in 1887, his NYTs obit claimed he was the most popular man in New York City.

There are a few different tales behind the iconic lawn jockeys that stand guard in front of the Museum, each more imaginative than the last.

Speaking of imagination, consider this. For much of the 19th Century, race horses were portrayed in paintings in what I call the Superman pose - their legs splayed out fore and aft.

This highly stylized and overwrought depiction was brought to an end by modern technology, the advent of the camera.

Pioneering work by English photographer Eadweard Muybridge in 1878 demonstrated conclusively that the animals’ four hoofs actually actually left the Earth while galloping, but not in the way painters showed them.

Mr Muybridge changed his name to sound more antiquated, more olde worlde. Mission accomplished, Eadweard.

The camera forced hundreds a painters to alter their approach to reflect more naturalistic views presented by photographs. The Superman pose got a dose of Kryptonite and the art world was the better for it.