Some Reads for Thursday

 Secretariat's Triple Crown saddle, which had been in the possession of jockey Ron Turcotte's for fifty years before he sold it for around 2 million in 2023, sold again, this time for $1,200,000.

It really belongs  either at the Kentucky Horse Park or the National Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga, not to some rich asshole.

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Equine obituary:  Champion racehorse Serena's Song, 34, has died due to the infirmities of old age.  She won 11 Grade 1 races and was trained by the late trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

Snip:

"Serena had such a profound impact on many people's lives, especially the Lewis family, our family, and the staff who worked with her during her time at Denali," Denali's Conrad Bandoroff said. "We are incredibly blessed and honored that Bob and Beverly, and eventually their son Jeff, chose to keep her with us and trust us with her care for three decades. She is and always will be the Queen of Denali Stud.

"I would like to think that Wayne had a stall ready for her up there, and that he, Bob, and Beverly welcomed her with open arms."

Serena's Song had a long and illustrious life. Bred in Kentucky by Dr. Howard Baker out of the Northfields mare Imagining, she sold as a yearling at the 1993 Keeneland July Sale for $150,000 to the Lewises who were purchasing yearlings to put into training with Lukas.

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A key figure in the Watergate scandal, Alexander Butterfield, who shocked the nation when he disclosed Nixon had recorded conversations in the White House, died the other day at the age of 99.  He would have turned 100 next month.

Without his disclosure, it isn't likely Nixon would have been forced to resign from office.

Snip:

Butterfield started off in the White House as a deputy assistant to the president. He initially did not like the job and wanted to quit. But things got better for Butterfield in the White House at the end of 1969 when his office was moved next to Nixon’s and he was able to keep a close watch on the president. He eventually went on to become one of Nixon’s closest aides.

Nixon nominated Butterfield to be administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration in 1972, a post he was confirmed to by the Senate the following year. He was called to testify before the Senate about the then-suspected White House taping system just four months after he started at the FAA.

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