B1 · Intermediate
10 min
culturesports historygender and societytradition
The Race of Kings: Horses, History, and a First
La Carrera de los Reyes: Caballos, Historia y una Primera Vez
On Saturday, a trainer named Cherie DeVaux made history at the Kentucky Derby, the most famous horse race in the United States. Fletcher and Octavio discuss the sport, the tradition, and what it means to win for the very first time after 152 years.
El sábado, una entrenadora llamada Cherie DeVaux hizo historia en el Derby de Kentucky, la carrera de caballos más famosa de Estados Unidos. Fletcher y Octavio hablan sobre el deporte, la tradición y lo que significa ganar por primera vez después de 152 años.
5 essential B1-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| hazaña | feat, heroic act | Ganar el Derby de Kentucky fue una verdadera hazaña para Cherie DeVaux. |
| entrenador / entrenadora | trainer / female trainer | La entrenadora preparó al caballo durante muchos meses antes de la carrera. |
| favorito | favorite (to win) | El caballo favorito no ganó la carrera. |
| tradición | tradition | El Derby de Kentucky tiene una tradición de más de cien años. |
| coraje | courage | Necesitas mucho coraje para competir contra los mejores del mundo. |
Cherie DeVaux did something Saturday that nobody in a hundred and fifty-two runnings of this race had ever managed, and I want to make sure we actually sit with that for a second before we blow past it.
Bueno, para los oyentes que no saben mucho sobre este deporte, el Derby de Kentucky es la carrera de caballos más importante en los Estados Unidos, y es muy, muy antigua.
Well, for listeners who don't know much about this sport, the Kentucky Derby is the most important horse race in the United States, and it is very, very old.
It started in 1875, which, to put it in context, is ten years after the end of the Civil War.
The country was barely stitched back together, and they were already running horses at Churchill Downs.
Y en todos esos años, desde 1875 hasta el sábado pasado, ninguna mujer ganó el Derby como entrenadora.
And in all those years, from 1875 until last Saturday, no woman won the Derby as a trainer.
Eso es mucho tiempo.
That is a long time.
A hundred and fifty-one years of trying, and then Golden Tempo crosses the line at 24 to 1 odds, and Cherie DeVaux is the name everyone's saying.
I'll admit the odds caught me, too.
Nobody expected this horse.
24 a 1 significa que el caballo no era el favorito.
24 to 1 means the horse was not the favorite.
Era una sorpresa.
It was a surprise.
En español decimos que era un 'caballo largo', un outsider.
In Spanish we say it was a 'long horse', an outsider.
Right, and that's actually part of what makes this feel so cinematic.
The first female trainer, a surprise horse, and the oldest continuously run horse race in America.
That's a lot of story in one afternoon.
Octavio, ¿conoces el Derby de Kentucky?
Octavio, do you know the Kentucky Derby?
¿En España, la gente sabe lo que es?
In Spain, do people know what it is?
Sí, claro.
Yes, of course.
No es muy popular en España, pero la gente conoce el nombre.
It is not very popular in Spain, but people know the name.
Es como el Tour de Francia para el ciclismo, ¿no?
It is like the Tour de France for cycling, no?
Todos saben el nombre aunque no siguen el deporte.
Everyone knows the name even if they don't follow the sport.
That's a fair comparison.
And like the Tour, part of what makes it famous is that it carries this weight of tradition.
The whole pageant around it, the hats, the mint juleps, the two minutes of the actual race.
¿Dos minutos?
Two minutes?
La carrera dura solo dos minutos, ¿y la gente viaja mucho para ver eso?
The race lasts only two minutes, and people travel far to see that?
Two minutes and change, yes.
And people fly in from everywhere, spend thousands of dollars on a hat, stand in the sun all day for those two minutes.
I've been once.
I can confirm it makes complete sense when you're there.
Esto me recuerda a la Feria de Sevilla o a la Feria del Caballo en Jerez.
This reminds me of the Feria de Sevilla or the Feria del Caballo in Jerez.
En España también tenemos una cultura del caballo muy importante, y los caballos son parte de la identidad de algunas regiones.
In Spain we also have a very important horse culture, and horses are part of the identity of some regions.
The Feria del Caballo, that's in Jerez de la Frontera, right?
I actually passed through there once, years ago.
The horsemanship is extraordinary.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
El caballo andaluz, el Pura Raza Español, es muy famoso en todo el mundo.
The Andalusian horse, the Pure Spanish Breed, is very famous around the world.
Hay una tradición de siglos.
There is a tradition of centuries.
Pero en España los caballos son cultura y arte, no solo deporte.
But in Spain horses are culture and art, not just sport.
And that distinction matters, I think.
In the American tradition, horses are bound up with expansion westward, with ranching, with this mythology of open land.
It comes from a completely different direction.
Sí, y también la palabra 'cowboy', que viene de esa tradición.
Yes, and also the word 'cowboy', which comes from that tradition.
Pero la idea del caballo como símbolo de poder y libertad, eso es universal.
But the idea of the horse as a symbol of power and freedom, that is universal.
Todas las culturas lo tienen.
All cultures have it.
So let's talk about why women were kept out of this for so long, because it wasn't just informal bias.
There were actual rules.
¿Reglas?
Rules?
¿Las mujeres no podían participar por ley?
Women couldn't participate by law?
Not by federal law, but by the rules of racing authorities.
Female jockeys weren't licensed in most American states until 1968, and even then the resistance was intense.
It took decades before anyone took female trainers seriously at the top level.
Y un entrenador es diferente de un jockey.
And a trainer is different from a jockey.
El entrenador prepara el caballo durante meses, decide la estrategia, trabaja todos los días.
The trainer prepares the horse for months, decides the strategy, works every day.
Es un trabajo muy serio.
It is very serious work.
More than serious.
The trainer is arguably the most important person in the whole operation.
A good trainer can take a horse nobody believes in and get it to Churchill Downs ready to run the race of its life.
Which is essentially what DeVaux did.
¿Y cómo es DeVaux?
And what is DeVaux like?
¿Sabes algo de su historia?
Do you know anything about her story?
She's been working in racing for decades.
Not a newcomer, not an overnight story.
She paid her dues in the smaller circuits, built a reputation quietly, and then Saturday happened.
That kind of trajectory, I find it genuinely moving.
Esto pasa mucho en los deportes.
This happens a lot in sports.
La primera mujer en hacer algo importante no es una joven de veinte años.
The first woman to do something important is not a young twenty-year-old.
Es alguien con mucha experiencia que esperó mucho tiempo.
It is someone with a lot of experience who waited a long time.
That's a real pattern.
The first woman to run the Boston Marathon officially, Kathrine Switzer, had to fight just to get a number.
The infrastructure of exclusion runs deep, and breaking through it usually takes an entire career.
Y el deporte del caballo tiene una tradición muy masculina.
And horse sport has a very masculine tradition.
Los dueños de los caballos, los entrenadores famosos, los nombres importantes, casi todos son hombres.
The horse owners, the famous trainers, the important names, almost all of them are men.
Es un mundo difícil para las mujeres.
It is a difficult world for women.
And let's be honest about where some of that comes from.
Horse racing, at the elite level, is bound up with wealth and with old money.
Churchill Downs, the Jockey Club, these institutions were built by people who were also keeping other people out, and that culture doesn't dissolve quickly.
En Europa es igual.
In Europe it is the same.
Las carreras de caballos en Ascot, en Longchamp, son eventos sociales para personas ricas.
The horse races at Ascot, at Longchamp, are social events for wealthy people.
El sombrero y el vestido son tan importantes como el caballo.
The hat and the dress are as important as the horse.
Royal Ascot especially.
My ex-wife went once, spent six hours choosing a hat, watched about forty-five seconds of actual racing, and described the whole day as perfect.
Eso es honesto.
That is honest.
Y creo que eso explica algo importante: en estos eventos, la carrera es el pretexto.
And I think that explains something important: at these events, the race is the excuse.
La fiesta es el verdadero objetivo.
The party is the real objective.
Which is very Spanish, actually, if I can say that.
The Feria you mentioned, the Semana Santa, there's this genius for building a cultural event where the religious or sporting content and the social occasion are completely inseparable.
Sí, y no creo que eso sea malo.
Yes, and I don't think that is bad.
La cultura necesita rituales.
Culture needs rituals.
Los rituales necesitan un motivo para reunirse.
Rituals need a reason to gather.
El caballo, el fútbol, la procesión, son solo diferentes formas de decir: 'aquí estamos juntos'.
The horse, the football, the procession, these are just different ways of saying: 'here we are together'.
That's well put.
And maybe that's part of why a moment like DeVaux's landing matters beyond sport.
When someone who looked like her wasn't supposed to be there wins the thing, the ritual itself gets rewritten a little.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y eso es lo que hace que una victoria deportiva sea también un momento cultural.
And that is what makes a sporting victory also a cultural moment.
No solo ganó una carrera.
She did not just win a race.
Cambió la historia del evento.
She changed the history of the event.
I want to go back to the horse for a second, because Golden Tempo at 24 to 1 is its own story.
The favorites go in with all the money and all the attention, and then this horse that most people dismissed just runs past all of them.
There's something almost stubborn about it.
Los caballos no leen los periódicos.
Horses don't read the newspapers.
No saben que son el favorito o el outsider.
They don't know if they are the favorite or the outsider.
Eso es lo bonito del deporte, ¿no?
That is the beautiful thing about sport, no?
El papel no corre.
Paper doesn't run.
"Paper doesn't run." I'm stealing that.
Es un dicho muy común en el fútbol español.
It is a very common saying in Spanish football.
Cuando un equipo pequeño juega contra el favorito, decimos: 'el papel no corre'.
When a small team plays against the favorite, we say: 'paper doesn't run'.
Los números en el papel no deciden el resultado.
The numbers on paper do not decide the result.
You know, that phrase lands differently for me when I think about DeVaux.
All those years when the paper said she wasn't supposed to win, wasn't supposed to even be at the table.
And then she runs.
Hablaste de los caballos como símbolo cultural americano.
You spoke about horses as an American cultural symbol.
Pero en todo el mundo, en muchas culturas diferentes, el caballo representa lo mismo: la fuerza y la libertad.
But around the world, in many different cultures, the horse represents the same thing: strength and freedom.
Es interesante que un animal pueda tener ese significado en tantos lugares.
It is interesting that an animal can carry that meaning in so many places.
There's a word Octavio used just now that I want to ask him about, actually, because it came up a couple of times today and it's worth pulling apart.
You said 'hazaña' when you were talking about what DeVaux did.
Is that the right word for what happened Saturday?
Sí, 'hazaña' es perfecta.
Yes, 'hazaña' is perfect.
Significa un acto muy difícil que alguien hace con valor.
It means a very difficult act that someone does with courage.
No es solo un éxito normal.
It is not just a normal success.
Es algo especial, algo que requiere mucho esfuerzo o mucho coraje.
It is something special, something that requires great effort or great courage.
So it's more than just 'achievement.' It carries something heroic in it.
In English we might say 'feat' or 'exploit', but those words feel thinner to me.
They don't carry the weight that 'hazaña' seems to carry.
Exacto.
Exactly.
'Hazaña' viene del árabe, de la época en que los árabes vivieron en España.
'Hazaña' comes from Arabic, from the time when Arabs lived in Spain.
Significa algo como 'la acción del héroe'.
It means something like 'the action of the hero'.
Puedes decir: 'ganar el Derby fue una verdadera hazaña para DeVaux'.
You can say: 'winning the Derby was a real hazaña for DeVaux'.
Arabic roots in Spanish, landing in Kentucky.
I genuinely did not see that coming.
And that is, somehow, the perfect place to leave this.