I love This American Life, on NPR. The most recent episode, on long shots, is not about sport, but it opens with a couple of sporting examples. One is a high school football team which, unlike the ones in top American teen dramas, is mocked and derided in the corridor for losing every game for nearly three seasons. The other is the out-of-nowhere winner of last year's Kentucky Derby, Mine That Bird.
If you watch the race, and it's very short, you'll notice that halfway through the horse is separated out the back of the pack. This is what everyone expected. Reporters did no background. It was a 50-1 shot. I have now watched the video very carefully for twenty minutes, freezing frames, and I still can't quite see where the hell it comes from and how it made up the ground. The commentator doesn't notice the horse until it's leading by three yards.
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