Sobriquet for international hip-hop star Pitbull / FRI 6-11-21 / Blossom of snow in song / Rabbits in a race / Jokey response to an overly technical explanation / Goddess whose Roman counterpart is Victoria

Constructor: Matthew Stock

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (lots of names, so who knows how that went for you?)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: MEDINA Spirit, winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby (13D) —

Medina Spirit (foaled April 5, 2018) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2021 Kentucky Derby under suspicious circumstances. He qualified for the race by winning the Robert B. Lewis Stakes and finishing second in both the San Felipe Stakes and Santa Anita Derby. He also came third in the 2021 Preakness Stakes.

He was ridden by jockey John Velazquez in his fourth Kentucky Derby triumph and trained by Bob Baffert in his record seventh Derby victory. The horse was a long shot with post-time odds of 12–1.

Medina Spirit's Derby win was called into question after the horse tested positive for the anti-inflammatory steroid betamethasone after the race. A few days after finishing third in the 2021 Preakness Stakes, New York racing officials banned Medina Spirit and Baffert from participating in the 2021 Belmont Stakes. (wikipedia)

Well, this puzzle certainly is *trying*. Very strong "Hello, fellow youths!" vibe. I guess it's better than not trying. Still, I think it's wise not to confuse "crammed with references to contemporary pop culture" with, uh, "good." I was hit and miss with the names, which slowed things down a bit. Nobody cares about horse racing anymore, least of all me, so MEDINA was just a bunch of letters to me. I forgot Pitbull's "sobriquet" and that "-RW-" near the front of the answer made the answer so hard to parse that I actually took out PAWNED (whence the "W") at one point. No idea about the racing term "rabbit" so PACESETTERS was ??? (30A: "Rabbits" in a race) (this is a reference to long-distance racing by humans, not horses or dogs, in case you were wondering). I could see Johnny WEIR (alongside Tara Lipinski) in my brain but needed a couple crosses to remember his name (46A: Olympic figure skating commentator Johnny). Very familiar with "Minari" but apparently much less so with the precise name of the director (37A: "Minari" director ___ Isaac Chung) (still waiting for Chloé ZHAO to show up in my puzzle). Completely forgot about the goddess NIKE, largely because I've literally never heard of the goddess Victoria (49A: Goddess whose Roman counterpart is Victoria). This was all enough to slow me down considerably. Everything else was not too troubling. Not too exciting either, except MEAN STREETS, which is so good (35A: Scorsese film added to the National Film Registry in 1997). Rewatched it last month and made me think Keitel should've been a much, much bigger star, even than he already is. Everyone remembers De Niro's obnoxious Johnny Boy, but Keitel's Charlie (the protagonist) is the only reason you care about anything that's happening on screen. He is the complex emotional heart of that movie, as he is with many of the movies he's in. In particular, I recommend seeking out Bertrand Tavernier's "Death Watch" (1980), a prescient near-future sci-fi take on the dehumanizing effects of reality TV.

Sep. 28, 2006