Tale of Verve

Pre-race

One of the fun things that happened on the trip to Denver was getting to watch the Preakness with my family.  I am not a gambler.  Usually I will not bet more than a penny unless I am 100% sure I will win a bet.  But I decided that I was willing to bet $1.  What I didn't realize was that we would be drawing the names of horses out of a hat.  When I drew Tale of Verve, I was very excited, not because I knew anything about the horse but because Verve is the name of the vitamin/energy drink that I love and that saves me on Sunday afternoons from the post-liturgical coma.  Drawing Tale of Verve seemed fortuitous.  Learning that the odds were something like 30:1 did not dampen my enthusiasm.

The winners

If you watched the race, you know that American Pharaoh won.  What you might not have noticed if you weren't betting on my horse was that Tale of Verve got off to a terrible start and was in last place for a good bit of the race, only coming from behind toward the end to pass everyone and finish second!  I couldn't believe it.  I doubled my money!  But best of all, I was proud of Tale of Verve, and in disbelief.  Of course all the attention was on American Pharaoh because he won, but I couldn't believe they didn't give more time to Tale of Verve - he was last, and then he was second!  Such a comeback.  My horses are usually in the back - choosing a horse by name does not go well for me.  I'm sure that the horse was not drinking Verve, but the way he ran looked like how I feel after I drink it.  Ready to come from an energy slump into clear laser focus and productivity.  Go Tale of Verve!