I listen to music. I just don't know all the genre names. And maybe I don't listen to as big a variety, or the same kind.

I'd never heard of "post-rock" until now - is that what that is? I am really un-knowledgeable about music. I feel like an especially clueless guy walking into the record store in High Fidelity and facing a roomful of Jack Black's character.

Yes, but a veteran jockey would also know to lay off the stick, wouldn't get caught up in the moment.  And Walter's motive for concealing GUM's true abilities was not for personal gain, but as I said above, "to save Gettin' Up Morning from his father's fate."  Now that's blown.

Thank you @avclub-5d36b15195d38ab67e8aa5fe4241dd03:disqus, it's good to not be alone.

It doesn't take a big one to spook house pets, I'm guessing horses are similar.  The one that was depicted on the show wasn't very big, roughly on the order of what we experienced this morning.

Escalante is a self-centered prick.

He looked Indian (of the Asian sub-continent) to me.

"Is this your first earthquake?"  As a Bay Area native, this gave me a chuckle.  It's fun to watch how people who aren't accustomed to the earth moving over-react.

I guess I have lousy taste in music.

I just hope she gets to keep riding.  As she said to the other jockey before her first race, "get used to the view."  I'd like to - it's a very lovely view.

Re: "the man strikes me as deeply, profoundly religious. In that he appears
to believe in humanity as a singular organism made of many parts, each
isolated but also commingling in spoken and unspoken communication. And
that this singular/multiple organism is also some expression, or at
least gesture, of the divine…

I disagree on your first point.  This goes along with many other conversations where the other gamblers betray their ignorance of horses and horse racing other than what they need to know to fill out a racing form.  Whether that particular bump "was clearly not going to overturn the race" in the eyes of a…

That explains something.  While just about every American knows "oy vey" and a few other Yiddish words/phrases as a result of decades of Jewish control of the media (nearly a century, if we go back to the Borscht Belt), I thought the "kenahora" line was kind of obscure for a goy to use.

That's how I read it as well.  Rosie tipped Walter's hand by showing what Gettin' Up Morning was capable of.

Thanks for that background info. This, and the story of the real-life horse-retirement/prisoner-rehabilitation program from last week, really help flesh out the story for those of us who have no knowledge of horse racing.  I look forward to learning more.

The 300-like* FX remind me a bit of Sin City - they both feel like a live-action graphic novel.  Like you say, it works only when the story is the sort that would make a good graphic novel.

And they're not exactly using English longbows, yeah?
(ok, I took archery in high school because it wasn't football, and sucked at it, so … nevermind)

Ashur definitely Took A Level In Badass here - he's been a Butt Monkey so much of the time.  In this episode he's repeatedly shown standing firmly on that status, and then instantaneously pivoting completely around it.

I enjoyed Christine

I miss Wheat Hearts