Bob Ford: Pimlico stirs memories of triumph and tragedy

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, May, 2008 | by Bob Ford Inquirer Columnist

BALTIMORE - Thirty years ago, on the third Saturday in May, in what was grandly called the "Auxiliary Press Viewing Area," I leaned against a loose timber railing on the edge of Pimlico Race Course's roof and saw a horse named Affirmed gallop down the stretch exactly one neck ahead of a horse named Alydar, and had no idea what I was seeing.

At that moment, with the roar and the excitement and the drama, the only thought was that falling from the roof of Pimlico, which seemed a distinct possibility, would be a poor career choice. In all probability, though, a tumble into the grandstand wouldn't have greatly affected the prose turned out on a balky Olivetti standard typewriter and sent by primitive facsimile machine to a tiny newspaper office not that interested in receiving...