When Art Imitates Life – HBO’s Luck Might Have Been Onto Something
HBO’s Luck ran out of exactly that several months ago, after the showed ceased production due to multiple horses deaths in just a few months of shooting. Although the the series ran for just a few weeks, viewers were still given a short glimpse into the inner workings of the horse racing industry, showing the corruption and power struggles that occur inside the stalls.
Without the cameras rolling, it appears the story continues to play out, but this time it wasn’t a horse who was euthanized.
Following the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby, which is the equivalent to NASCAR’s Daytona 500, man’s body was found in a barn behind Churchill Downs, the annual host of the event.
According to Deadspin,
A spokeswoman for the Louisville police, Alicia Smiley, confirmed that the death has been ruled a homicide and occurred shortly after the race.
Authorities received a call at about 5 a.m. on Sunday reporting a body found in a barn not far from where I’ll Have Another, the horse that won Saturday’s race, was stabled.
There was no identification on the body, but Smiley said the victim is a Hispanic man.
Details continue to pour in today from the sports news site:
Louisville police briefed the media this morning on the shocking news that a horse groom was murdered at Churchill Downs following the Kentucky Derby. Lt. Barry Wilkerson of the Louisville Metro Police Department just wrapped up a 20-minute press conference and gave a clearer picture of what went down and what investigators are still piecing together.
• The victim was 48-year-old Adan Fabian Perez, who is from Guatemala and appears to have been working as a groom for Cecil Borel, a longtime trainer who is the brother of famed jockey Calvin Borel.
• Perez’s body was discovered around 5 a.m. Sunday morning in Barn #8.
• The Louisville medical examiner is currently doing an autopsy and results are expected shortly.
• Police are “hearing there were some altercations earlier in the day,” according to Wilkerson, and are currently interviewing witnesses to see if anyone can make a firm identification as to who else was involved.
• Their best guess, so far, is that Perez was killed and his body placed in the barn some time after midnight Sunday.
HBO has made a name for itself in the past two decades, providing paid subscription viewers with premiere entertainment that often walks the line between fiction and non-fiction. Including Luck, the Home Box Office has debuted six television series that somewhat portray the real life truths behind some of America’s most lucrative and infamous operations, including:
The Wire – a realistic portrayal of Baltimore’s many facets, as written by a former Baltimore police reporter;
OZ – a fictional drama that provides glimpses of the truths of life behind bars;
Entourage – a peek into the fabulous life of a Hollywood actor and his group of friends which is said to be loosely based off the life of executive producer Mark Whalberg;
Veep – HBO’s latest edition, the show provides viewers with a fictional peak into the hilarity of our political system;
and most famously The Sopranos - follows New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads.
Although HBO continues to cite “multiple horse casualties” as being the main cause for the show’s demise, conspiracy theorists will wonder if the cable network was threatened by the horse racing industry itself.
Who other than Fox News to assume the role? The right wing political news medium ran the following story just days after the announcement of the shows cancellation: The real story behind HBO’s cancellation.
As details of the murder continue to unfold, the question of Luck’s true demise will still remain in question. Did the show truly strike a nerve with the people who opened their stalls to the cable provider, only to unveil the true lining of shit that piled high in America’s stables, or was horse related casualties truly the cause?
Michael Mann, a dark bar, and some aged whiskey, may be the only means of extracting the truth. Until that happens, we’ll leave it up to speculation.
About mjsiii
