A normal day of posts on the Racing Forum was interrupted on October 30th with the brazen challenge of a $50,000 match race between Texaseast Thoroughbred's Big Pimpy and Getting Lucky Lodge's En Garde. Texaseast issued the challenge for a date that has since been agreed upon by both parties for November 12th of "old guard" vs. "new guard" at 6 furlongs. The challenge was quickly accepted on the same day by Getting Lucky Lodge, showing a steadfast denial of fear with regards to this new challenger, stating "unless he has been working with 130 lbs. and blown meters he cannot get within 3 lengths of ours". Also GLL ended the acceptance with the time tested French quote "En Garde mon ami", translated (after a quick trip to cyberworld and an online translator) "in guard my friend". Texaseast quickly responded with a quote from former 17 time NWA/WCW/WWE World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Ric Flair by saying "To be the man, you got to beat the man." and promising this won't be the last of his challenges.
Online responses have ranged from a picture posted of the tortoise and hare by Barycki Racing and a warning that 6f is not enough ground for Big Pimpy to show his true potential by Second To None.
Showing a true sporting soul, Getting Lucky Lodge has given Texaseast an out. As of this writing, Getting Lucky has offered to call off the match race citing "There is no shame in admitting it was a folly to challenge us.", and even offered Texaseast, should he not take the option to back out, the additional option of choosing the jockey for En Garde. Most telling of all however was the final quote from Getting Lucky Lodge, "We'll donate our winnings to your (Texaseast's) favorite charity "Cowboys Who Have Taken One Too Many Kicks to the Head Society".
Ouch.
The tale of the tape reads like this:
Big Pimpy: C2, lifetime record 0-0-0 $0
4 lifetime workouts: 6f 1:09.52, 6f 1:10.34, 6f 1:09.69, 6f 1:09.60
En Garde: C2, lifetime record 0-0-0 $0
2 lifetime workous: 5f 57.99, 6f 1:08.75
The match race challenge is this reporter's first sighting of a new barn challenging an established barn to a match race. I haven't seen a show of fearlessness like this since Mighty Mouse stood strong and puffed his chest out claiming "Here I come to save the day." Although he was undersized and overmatched, Mighty Mouse indeed went on to back up what he said. He did save the day.
As of this writing, Texaseast has not responded to the offer of an out by Getting Lucky Lodge, so we're left with this question: Will Mighty Mouse's example repeat itself on November 12th?