The Televangelist: ‘Luck,’ Season 1, Episode 3

A Guide to Racehorse Ownership: $85 a day for training, $125 a month for the blacksmith, $6 a month for carrots, $125 for acupuncture, $3 a day for vitamins. Petting is free.

Image

  • HBO
  • ”... I’ve made a huge mistake”



As Ace continues to exist in the background of the show discussing macro economic issues and things like derivatives, which make me feel like Leon in the steam room, the worlds of our other characters began to orbit closer to one another. The Four Musketeers/Amigos, who are truly like a dysfunctional but terribly close family (Marcus as the stern father, Renzo as the sympathetic mother, Jerry as the promising eldest son with a rogue streak, and Lonnie as the crazy uncle) have found a way to purchase their horse away from The Cowboy, and have even gotten Escalante, who knows the horse’s potential, to train him. Now these bystanders, who have always profited from the sidelines, are completely immersed in the racing itself. Good luck, gentlemen. I’m sure it’ll be anything but a smooth ride.

Aside from racing silks (and barn names), the foursome will be tasked soon enough with choosing a jockey. Of the three we’ve met, I can safely say that “jockey” is not an occupation any kid is going to want to put down as their chosen profession these days. Rosie, though talented, is unfortunately female, and gets unceremoniously dumped by Walter last week and shipped up to Portland. Because his chosen jockey Ronnie is injured (again - “I break this damn collarbone more than I get laid!”), Walter considers calling for Rosie to come back, but is crippled by his desire for her to do well for herself, something that is clearly not as likely to happen at Santa Anita, despite the chance to ride Getting Up Morning (a.k.a. Son of Delphi). In the next hospital suite over from Ronnie is Leon, who fainted in the steam room not as a delicate Victorian lady might (onto a couch or, better yet, a man), but onto slippery tiles with a sickening “squick!” of fractured skull. Delightful. The reason for Leon’s fainting, though not made abundantly clear, is due to his starving himself to make weight. The lighter the jockey, the faster the horse can go. The issue, though side-eyed by the doctor, is treated as a normal peril of jockeying, and Leon is quickly cleared to ride again.

No one has it easy at the track, least of all the horses. A story came out last week about HBO’s cagey response to two horses that have died on the set of the show. Though the AHA, who oversees animal welfare in productions (they are the ones who give the “no animals were harmed in the making of this ...” stamp of approval), has denied that the horses were mistreated, PETA is looking for answers. As a reader pointed out last week, horses can be irreparably damaged from a life of racing. At high speeds, a horses’ stomach crushes up against its lungs, which can cause hemorrhaging. The fact that the show employs ex-racehorses is both noble and bound to have medical complications. As Escalante mentions in his breakdown of cost to the Four Musketeers, “$125 for acupuncture, and he’s going to need acupuncture. If you knew what his legs felt like after a race you would be begging for it all day every day.” Lovely.