…and I don’t mean the horse.
Michael Matz was an Olympic Equestrian, only recently retired. As a rider, he’s legendary, inducted into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame (along with his best mount, For the Moment) on April 5 of this year. He won a silver medal in show jumping in 1996, and carried the flag in the closing ceremonies that same year. He wasn’t given that honor just because of his supreme riding skill; it was given to him because of what happened in an Iowa cornfield in 1989.
Do any of you recall watching a video of a cartwheeling DC10 on the news? It was replayed over and over again, and later was subject of a 1992 TV movie. An engine, and then the hydraulics, had failed. Anticipating the arrival of the crippled craft, someone stood at the runway fence and videotaped its doomed arrival. It crashed in horrific fashion, ripping the plane in half and killing 112 aboard. 184 miraculously survived–Matz was one of them, as were four children he pulled from the wreckage. After guiding three of them, he actually went back in to the burning craft to retrieve an 11-month-old infant who had fallen into a luggage compartment once the fuselage reached its final, upside-down resting position.
17 years later, Matz has shifted his equestrian focus to the thoroughbred racing world and brings his undefeated Barbaro to Churchill Downs, his first Derby horse…and an undefeated one at that. There, he was reunited with the now-grown children, who wouldn’t miss watching their hero’s moment for anything: one left his wife and four-day-old infant to view the race; another skipped out on walking in his own Masters Degree graduation ceremony.
My subject line tells the end of the story: Barbaro won, convincingly, and is in perfect position to be the first Triple Crown winner in 28 years.
But I know who the real stud is.
For the record: by all accounts of those in the hunter/jumper circuit who have interacted with him, Matz is a truly genuine, class act. Several people I know in the horse world who have met him described how he is a humble, helpful, sincere individual–rare in ANY athlete (or person, really) who has reached his level of success. It surprised no one who knows him that he is the only winning Derby trainer in memory to thank his assistants, grooms, and workers at the home facility while being interviewed in the winner’s circle. What a stud.
An article about the plane crash (before the Derby was run; scroll to the bottom for an article on the Derby win:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/...ERBY_0430.html
And an article about Barbaro’s convincing win:
http://tcm.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=33444
