Over the spring/summer months we have had the great pleasure of covering the best racing Europe has to offer. Whether it be the Epsom Derby or Royal Ascot meeting the same emotions are drawn from it for me.
There is such a sense of rawness to it, giving it the purest of racing feels. These feelings are evoked by the visuals the racing gives. It feels like there is nothing else but the racing going on. No huge big screens in the infield, no graphics on the screen giving us the current running order, no distractions, just racing.
Also, comes the realization that every course is different. Different angles, different undulations, and different directions unlike the constant left turns we take here in the US. Just consider the different courses that Sea the Stars had to compete over and the different challenges he encountered over his historic season.
Don’t get me wrong I love our racing here and so does the rest of the world. Just look at Sheikh Mohammed’s approach to building his courses, both primarily North American influenced. But there is the purest feel when watching European racing, a throwback to what racing was founded on.

When I watched Majesticperfection complete three quarters of a mile in 1:07.24 in the Iowa Sprint Handicap I was really impressed, immediately thinking that this could be a horse for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. But when I read the next morning exactly who’s track record Majesticperfection broke it put me into reminiscing mode. Coach Jimi Lee held the track record in Iowa for just under six years, but his resume is much more than a final time.

For Midwestern fans Coach Jimi Lee needs no introduction, he has been a part of the fabric of racing since 2002. Over the course of his career the now 10 year old has visited 12 race tracks, as far east as Mountaineer but never further west than Altoona, Iowa. His career record reads 52 races with 17 wins accumulating $978,818.

When reminded of Coach Jimi Lee while reading about Majesticperfection’s victory I truly thought that the Coach had probably been retired, it seemed logical he’s been around forever. But when I pulled up his PP’s I was surprised to see the old boy continues. Let’s not continue without giving his trainer Jimmy Divito credit. Keeping a veteran together and fast is nothing to scoff at. Coach Jimi Lee just ran for the first time in’10 on June 18th and ran second at his favorite track Prairie Meadows. He was only beaten only a length and a half off an eight month layoff in a race that was run in 1:08 and 3.

It’s horses like this that make the sport great. We get so caught up in the triple crown and Breeders’ Cup that sometimes we forget these great horses that make racing so easy to follow. It’s rare that we see careers like this anymore, horses just don’t maintain form in higher class levels like Coach Jimi Lee is now at 10 years old. So while we will follow Majesticperfection to a potential start in the Breeders’ Cup, do me a favor, put Coach Jimi Lee’s name in your virtual stable and appreciate his greatness on a much different level, a level that is rarely attained.