Those who have known about Holy Bull since the 1990s will have to forgive me for discovering him during the pandemic. I knew his name before then, of course, but I didn’t look into his career in earnest until I literally had all the time in the world. When I watched his races, I saw a prototype for racing as I understand it today. I was amazed.
Before Mike Smith was a jockey to the stars, he was the jockey to this star, a powerful speedball that dared the competition to catch him. His Travers win was one of the gutsiest a racing fan could ever hope for, and Durkin’s call that day could not have been improved upon by any writer. But there were flaws in the Bull’s career too.