Strange But True

Apparently I am not the only one to make a mistake when it comes to the appearance of Barbaro's brothers. In an earlier post (February 10), careful readers wondered about my reference to the resemblance of Lentenor to his father. While I do think he bears the carriage of Dynaformer (some breeding experts think that it is a sign of a good stallion to "stamp" his offspring with recognizable traits), what I truly meant to say was that the resemblance between Barbaro and Lentenor is especially striking, even to Gretchen Jackson.

It's good to know I am not alone. On February 23, the editors of the Rocky Mountain News printed a list of the errors they published unknowingly in 2007, with corrections. Under the caption, "But they look like twins" is the following admission: "We meant to run a photo of the late Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro but instead ran a photo of Barbaro's full brother, [at the time] a yet-to-be-named yearling."

This error came among those the paper admitted were "strange, funny and embarrassing," and as printing errors go, it probably was a difficult one to catch. Personally, I found their admission that they referred to Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony as "Caramel" Anthony, funny and the fact that they mis-identified Noah Webster, who published the nation's first dictionary in 1828 as American statesman orator Daniel Webster, embarrassing.

But substituting the photo of Lentenor for Barbaro, especially in light of all the similarities Gretchen noted between the two horses, that I find both strange and comforting.