Triple Crown Spinoff -- NBC & FoxSports

I’m watching FS1, which according to my crappy satellite company’s nonschedule, wasn’t going to be covering horse racing today, only FS2, which I don’t have.
But right now I’m happily watching racing on FS1, so no complaints.

So, what do you all think of Fox and NBC sharing the coverage this year?
And how do you think the Fox Sports channels’ coverage compares with NBCSN/NBC’s?

And just for fun, how many of you are missing the hats and nonhorsey celebs at Churchill Downs this weekend?

It will be interesting to see what they do at the Preakness with “Maryland My Maryland”. The song was used as a Confederate battle hymn, and refers to Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant. One line “Sic Semper" is the proud refrain” is a reference to what the John Wilkes Boothe shouted when he assassinated Lincoln (“Sic semper tyrannis”).

There has been some talk about changing the song but I don’t see anything happening by October.

Maryland, My Maryland will not be heard at the Preakness:

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/243404/preakness-no-more-maryland-my-maryland

3 Likes

It’s surprising how many State songs have had shocking lyrics. It’s time to change the ones that still do. I think most of them were changed in the 90’s weren’t they? I think a compromise was reached in some cases by keeping the tune and changing the lyrics.

1 Like

Yes, I should have clarified that I meant changing it as the state song altogether. They have been talking about it for years but hopefully now that the climate is changing their will be more pressure to get it done.

3 Likes

I remember them changing lyrics on My Old Kentucky Home years ago, changing it to “people are gay.”

What’s odd with that is that Maryland was not part of the Confederacy.

Although Maryland did not secede, it was a slaveholding state. There were mixed feelings about the war, and Marylanders fought on both sides of the war.

Are you sure the song has that phrase as a reference to Booth? It’s a Latin phrase much older than Booth, and apparently is or was Virginia’s motto. I’m just guessing Virginia chose it after the Revolutionary War but I really have no idea. But just because Booth quoted it doesn’t mean it refers to him in the Maryland state song.

Virginia chose it in 1776. The seal shows a defeated tyrant with a fallen crown. So I guess Revolutionary War, not Civil War.

Here is the “sic semper” phrase in the Maryland state song. Nothing about Booth or Lincoln.

Dear Mother! burst the tyrant’s chain,

Maryland!
Virginia should not call in vain,
Maryland!
She meets her sisters on the plain-
“Sic semper!” 'tis the proud refrain
That baffles minions back again,
Maryland!
Arise in majesty again,
Maryland! My Maryland!

The nine-stanza poem, “Maryland, My Maryland,” was written by James Ryder Randall in April 1861. A native of Maryland, Randall was teaching in Louisiana in the early days of the Civil War, and he was outraged at the news of Union troops being marched through Baltimore. The poem articulated Randall’s Confederate sympathies. Set to the traditional tune of “Lauriger Horatius” (“O, Tannenbaum”), the song achieved wide popularity in Maryland and throughout the South.

1 Like

You are correct that the initial references in the song were to the Revolutionary, not Civil War. However, it appears to have been popularized during the Civil War and used to support the Confederacy. I wonder if the last stanza was added then?

I hear the distant thunder-hum,
Maryland!
The Old Line’s bugle, fife, and drum,
Maryland!
She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb –
Huzza! She spurns the Northern scum!
She breathes! She burns! She’ll come! She’ll come!
Maryland! My Maryland!

I suspect the words “Northern scum” mean Union troops. Don’t think the Revolutionary War could have been the reference there.