Tonight was ChicagoNow’s Blogapalooz-Hour: everyone at ChicagoNow gets a topic, and we have an hour to write to that topic and publish a post.  Tonight’s topic?

“Write about a book or publication that is special to you or has had a big impact on your life.”

One piece came to mind.  As much as I wanted to write about…anything else, anything less catastrophic, anything less sad, I couldn’t do it.  The piece of horse racing writing that comes to my mind more than any other is not a happy one, but this topic compelled me to write about it.