"The line that began with Vosburgh reached its apex – but also its culmination – with Hatton. His erudite, lively writing elevated Thoroughbred racing to the classics during a time when horse racing was the most popular spectator sport in the country. Hatton’s death, at age 69, left a gap that seems increasingly unlikely to be filled. Racing itself has changed, and so, too, has the style in which its writers chronicle it. Stories about heroes of the turf have given way to stories about slot machines and animal welfare and declining revenue streams. There is, with reason, more cynicism now. Hatton had a greater stage to play on. One could imagine him writing about the theater or literature, but instead he wrote his Iliad about horse racing. He saw it as his task to uphold its history and principles."

"Rachel Alexandra, retired from racing this week, was a tremendous filly, but she was no Zenyatta. I touted Rachel Alexandra for 2009 Horse of the Year and she won. But I was wrong. Zenyatta deserved that honor and I hope she'll be voted 2010 Horse of the Year. Zenyatta has never been defeated on the race track, but she was 'defeated' in a poll for Horse of the Year. That was a shame." Unbelievable.

Ebert: "Never before have more critics written more or better words for more readers about more films. But already you are ahead of me, and know this is because of the internet." An essay as relevant to modern turf writing as to film criticism.

Turf writers not alone in decline: "Baseball's independent press corps ... is fading. As newspapers cut budgets and payrolls, the press boxes at major league ballparks are becoming increasingly lonely places, signaling a future when some games may be chronicled only by wire services, house organs and web writers watching the games on television."

On friendship and writing. That this thoughtful essay happens to feature turf writer William Nack seems cosmically right.