In every good story there is a hero and a villain. At times, it can be obvious what character is playing each role (think Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader). Other times it can really just be a matter of perspective. One of my all time favorite movies is Hoosiers. In the movie, the Hickory High team is clearly the hero, but does that make their opponent in the state finals the villain? Do we have any idea if that Indianapolis team exhibited any ‘villain’ tendencies other than just being a good basketball team? No viewer of Hoosiers probably has any idea, but it worked well for that particular movie. Other times, the same characters can be both a hero and villain. Mobster movies are often like that.
All of this kind of dovetails into our story from last Saturday night’s race. From our perspective, the breakdown was simple: In Over My Head is the hero. Firstclassalltheway is the villain. In classic movie fashion, the hero disposed of the villain. This week, I’ll let Mo go ahead and tell the story for you (he is post position #6):
(June 16th, race #2)
http://www.balmoralpark.com/Video.cfm?Cat=R
(Before I go any further, I need to make an important point of clarification. I’ve never met Firstclassalltheway, his trainer or owners. I couldn’t pick them out of a 3 person lineup. For all I know, they might be the nicest folks in the world. However, because storytelling sometime forces the writer to take liberties that are not always 100% vetted out, I’m going to paint their horse as the ‘villain’ even though that might be the farthest thing from reality.)
Like many well known movies, the story has to first build up the villain and make him or her appear almost unbeatable. Often times, the villain will actually beat the hero to make it known they are king of the hill. While they boast from their new perch, the hero works to better himself before returning for another fight. That happened in March when Firstclassalltheway ran off on Mo. Not only did Mo not catch him, he limped his way out of the race and was out for six weeks. Then, on Saturday, Mo made Firstclass look like he belonged in coach. Since it’s fun to compare Mo’s story to well known movies, here are some of my favorite that line up pretty well:
- Rocky III – The movie actually opens with Rocky (gasp!) LOSING. Clubber Lane (played perfectly by a younger Mr. T) beats the snot out of Rocky, taking his title and sending him into retirement. Rocky later seeks redemption by taking Clubbers best punch (telling him ‘you ain’t so bad’ during the match…I think Mo might have said that to Firstclass when he went past him in the stretch) and then sending him to the canvas to regain his title.
- Karate Kid – If anyone who reads this blog hasn’t seen Karate Kid, stop reading and go rent it immediately. Despite the fact the movie has some age to it (was released in 1984), the movie still translates well to current generations (unlike Wayne’s World…that was on the other night…horrible). Some great life lessons can be found in that movie by listening carefully to the sage words of Mr. Miagi. Anyway, the evil Cobra Kai team roughs up Danny LaRusso multiple times throughout the early and middle parts of the movie. As you might expect, he gets the ultimate revenge by disposing of them one by one at the big Southern California karate championship. During an especially intense match in the semi finals, one of the Cobra Kai kids is told to ‘sweep the leg’ by his sensei (the kid’s instructor wanted him to intentionally cause damage to Danny’s leg…an over the top cheap shot move) This sent Danny to the mat in horrible pain. Mr. Miagi has to step in and some sort of ancient remedy to “fix” the leg, which allows Danny to go out and fight in the finals. Not only did he end up winning, but he did so in dramatic fashion with the old ‘crane kick’ move. Wait a second…leg injuries…guys named Danny…this is getting a little creepy. If In Over My Head somehow learns to do the crane kick, I’m going to freak out!
- 8 Mile – Move forward a decade or so, but the same story rings true only this time it isn’t boxing or karate…its battle rap. It is kind of interesting that these are the first three movies that come to mind because I have never boxed, learned karate or battle rapped. Anyway, Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith (played very well by Eminem) starts by getting embarrassed in the Detroit rap battle scene, but in the end wins the crowd over by knocking off the top dog Pappa Doc. The big deviation between this movie and reality is that B-Rabbit starts messing around with some little vixen well before he claims the title as top rapper. For the record, Mo will be 100% focused on racing into the foreseeable future. He will not be mixing racing and extracurricular activities with fillies at all…despite the fact he seems to be turning a lot of heads in the barn. Hang in there Mo, your time will come.
- Teen Wolf – Why is it that everything today is a knock off of some movie or TV show from the 80s. Were people in the 80s just that much more creative? It seems like so much of current pop culture originated there. And if you want the coolest of cool, look no further than Teen Wolf. Just take an everyday 5’2” kid (played by Michael J. Fox) who is a below average point guard that one day finds out he has the ability to turn into a warewolf. From there, he completely takes over every basketball game (and really the entire school). He got all the ladies (which in itself is really pretty strange…what kind of chick goes for a warewolf?), surfed on the top of moving vans and didn’t take any crap from anyone. On the basketball court, no one objected. The other coaches, other players, no one cried foul over the fact that suddenly they were playing against a half human/ half wolf with a 7 foot vertical leap and a jump shot that would make Larry Bird jealous. That’s how it was in the 80s…you just sucked it up and played. Apparently you could even get away with standing under the basket during free throws to try and intimate your opponents (for those of you that have seen the movie, you know exactly what I’m taking about…where were the refs???). At this point you are probably asking yourself “what does this have to do with In Over My Head”? The answer: absolutely nothing. I just wanted to write about Teen Wolf.
I could go on (because this is kind of fun), but I think you get my point. The next question is what character will Mo end up like? My hope is Rocky, simply because Rocky III was only the halfway point of the series. I’d certainly like to think that Mo has another 47+ races in him over the next few years. Only time will tell. What I do know is that Mo is our hero. He is on a 4 race win streak and we are all having a ball. Mo will be back racing a week from Saturday at Balmoral Park. Come on down to cheer him on. He loves his fans!
Let’s Go Mo!
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