Yumfecta

[Benjamin Zimmer]

An unfortunate blend...

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http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070501/SPORTS0801/705010353
Yum! Brands' offer to pay $1 million to the winner of the Kentucky
Derby if it beats Barbaro's 6½-length winning margin drew lukewarm
reactions yesterday from previous victors.
Derby-winning horsemen agreed that it was unlikely any rider would
push a runner just to get a piece of the bonus, which would be split
evenly among the owner, jockey, trainer and NTRA Charities Barbaro
Memorial Fund
The bonus is "a great gesture, but if I was the rider of the winning
horse in the Kentucky Derby and I came to the last sixteenth of a mile
with horse in hand, knowing I was going to win anyway, I would be
thinking of the Preakness (Stakes) and the Triple Crown, not about a
million-dollar bonus," said jockey Gary Stevens, a three-time Derby
winner.
Yum, the Louisville-based parent of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and
other fast-food chains, joined with Churchill Downs yesterday to
announce the bonus. Playing on types of bets like the superfecta and
perfecta, the company is calling the bonus the "Yumfecta."
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King Kaufman of Salon discusses criticism of the promotion and
jokingly suggests a demonstration to protest "the spectacularly
annoying word Yumfecta":
http://www.salon.com/sports/col/kaufman/2007/05/04/friday/index.html


--Ben Zimmer

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