Doketo

<p>This story is about a thoroughbred racehorse named Doketo who was owned and trained by the person telling the story. Doketo was a good racehorse though not exceptional as he might have you believe. However as the racetrack saying goes he was better than an empty stall.</p><p>Life is like that. Friends and associates may not be exactly what you want but in a very real sense they can still be better than an empty stall. Doketo s eventual owner learned this lesson as a 20-year-old boxer competing in the fiercely contested featherweight division of the 1954 Golden Gloves where winners qualified for the Pan American Games.</p><p>The late veteran boxing judge Billy Oaths believed the young fighter had a strong chance of winning his division. His confidence came from the boxer s previous bout a stunning televised victory over a top-ranked U.S. featherweight in the opponent s hometown just three months earlier. As the young boxer climbed the steps to the ring for his first Golden Gloves match before a large crowd Billy called out C mon let s get the ball rolling! The boxer full of confidence shouted back Don t worry Billy. This won t last long. </p><p>And it didn t.</p><p>The referee stopped the fight in the first round awarding a TKO win to the boxer s opponent. While disappointed Billy would likely have summed it up with the same racetrack wisdom: his boxer and Doketo were both better than an empty stall.</p>