Jockey Joe Talamo on Twitter

Jockey Joe Talamo at Santa Anita/photo courtesy Animal Planet

I hadn’t intended for this blog to become a “Jockeys” fan site. But the show did make a splash. And we are rounding that last turn toward the Kentucky Derby.

Anyway, Joe Talamo, one of the featured jockeys on the show, is the regular rider for Derby contender I Want Revenge, who recently won the Wood Memorial in a stunning come-from-behind victory. The link is at the end of the post.

And now Joe has an account on Twitter, so we can follow along as he and his Derby horse head toward their Run for the Roses. Click here to follow Joe’s Derby Trail.

For race fan-building, Joe joining Twitter is crazy-like-a-fox.

What’s the big deal about Twitter anyway?

It’s not just people Joe’s age (he’s 19) texting madly on their phones. Twitter is a website where people can release their headline news, whether it’s personal or business.

Some people call it “micr0-blogging.”

The “tweets,” as they’re called, can only take 140 lines. But that’s not all.

You can reply to a person’s tweet. You can forward a person’s tweet (called “re-tweeting.”) And you can search for specific words or phrases in tweets (keyword or topic search.)

Have you seen names written like this? @SomebodysName? That’s a Twitter address. Here’s mine, @RhondaLane.

You can “follow” specific users via their @TheirName. More often or not, they reciprocate. So, you’re sending each other bulletins. Or even conversing.

All in 140 words or less.

And, if you have a Facebook page, you can set up your tweets to update your Facebook page.

Twitter is so hot that, according to Nielsen figures, only 475,000 subscribers were on in Feb. 2008. A year later, that number exploded to more than 7 million users.

Are there other horse people on Twitter?

There are more than you think. A lot are from the world of racing, like @JoeTalamo. You can get up-to-the-moment news from the Derby Trail about all of the contenders @TBABlogs which is the feed for the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance.

Bloggers who cover other disciplines are there, too. Jackie from Regarding Horses is on Twitter @WEG2010. Nicole from Hopelessly Horseless is @HopelesslyHorse.

But, when you get your account set up, set up a search for horse and/or your specific breed. It will show the current messages with those words in the text. You might decided that you want to “follow” that person.

And maybe they’ll follow you in return.

As for the Wood Memorial …

Check out this video of Joe and I Want Revenge and their come-from-behind victory. (Click here to check I Want Revenge’s pedigree.)

They took their time coming out of the gate and were dead last at first. But Joe and I Want Revenge sat chilly until time to make their move.

Here’s the 2009 Wood Memorial:

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Tags: Animal Planet's "Jockeys, I Want Revenge, Joe Talamo, Twitter