Paco Ibáñez used to sing “a galopar, a galopar” (to a poem by Rafael Alberti) and that is what Sonny León must have whispered to Rick Strike, his mount.
There is a lot of talk about the epic in sport because a Real football team is dedicated to coming back from games in added time. Those that many describe as minutes of garbage, that is the moment of exaltation and collective orgasm for the meringues. His is the reverse of premature ejaculation.
Even the American press has dedicated articles to him trying to understand something in the midst of so much astonishment. And it does not serve as an extenuating fact that the last feat was against Pep Guardiola, whose curriculum in Europe demonstrates the profound limitations of his manual, no matter how many expensive toys they buy from him, since he stopped going hand in hand with the Messi-Xavi-Iniesta triumvirate .
Although this, as has been written so many times, is another story and today is not the time. Just one question thrown into the air: Does anyone imagine how many consecutive Champions that trinity would have won if they had dressed in white? The glorious legend of this Royal team (it does what it is supposed to do, play football and not pseudo-political-philosophical treatises) has been eclipsed in a country where another minority sport such as horse racing has fascinated the staff.
The idea of remembering the song A galopar and Paco Ibáñez in these unpoetic times may seem outdated or carried away by a stroke of nostalgia, but it has not stopped ringing inside the head, like an obsession, since Saturday, May 6 .
León, a Venezuelan by origin, had never won one of the great races. In fact, he had never participated in a Kentucky Derby, one of the three classic events on the calendar in the United States (triple crown), with the musty aroma and false aristocratic splendor inherited from British imperialism. His horse, Rick Strike, was entered only a day earlier and was the last to enter the box for the start, as if he was reluctant to enter. The odds were 80-1, the worst of all. Not only that, he started being the bottom, as if the thing was not with him. And he came back, advancing on the inside until he won.
To add to the shock, Rick Strike will not win the triple crown. The owners have decided that he will not participate next Sunday in the so-called Preakness Stakes, in Baltimore, the second leg of that trophy. In a world where horses are routinely abused, they have decided that Rick Strike needs more rest. And this is another exemplary milestone.
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