The past seven days have been interesting in regard to foresight, with two sports helping illustrate the point.
The first one concerns auto racing and something many people said we should have seen coming, but that I would argue you couldn't.
The other concerns horse racing and a result I saw coming from a mile away that others said wasn't a sure thing.
First, the story in auto racing, specifically IndyCar.
The series suffered the latest in a line of tragic losses last Monday when Justin Wilson died as the result of injuries he sustained in a race the day before.
One thing about the story is indisputable - it's a tragic loss. Not because Wilson was universally liked, which he was. Not because he was a great ambassador for the sport, which he was. No, it's because he left behind a wife and two young daughters who will be deprived of years with their husband and father.
But what is in dispute, as least as far as I'm concerned, is that it could have been avoided. Many critics have been quick to voice the idea it's time for IndyCar to go away, that it's a series that tempts fate and almost solicits tragedy.
Yes, there are risks in a series where cars routinely exceed 200 mph at certain tracks. Those speeds are almost unfathomable, even for someone like myself who's seen it in person at more than 30 runnings of the Indy 500. It's an awesome spectacle.
It's a sport that is constantly looking at safety issues and improving them. Wilson's accident was a freak occurrence that no one could have foreseen - debris from a car involved in an accident was launched into the air and came down directly on Wilson's head, causing the traumatic injury that claimed his life.
You couldn't see it coming. It was simply a stroke of dumb luck.
Yes, a closed cockpit would have helped avoid this particular problem. But many in IndyCar and Formula One racing, which has a similar profile to its cars, have noted closed cockpits cause other problems.
There will always be risks in auto racing, and those who do it are the ones arguing loudest for its worthiness.
On to a topic not nearly as depressing, there was the tainting of a legacy Saturday.
From the moment it was announced American Pharoah, the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, would continue his brilliant 2015 season by running in the Travers Stakes, I told anyone who would listen it was a mistake.
Not because of any acute horse knowlege of speed ratings or finishing kicks or what have you, but because of the narrative.
The horse's owner (Ahmed Zayat) and trainer (Bob Baffert) ran American Pharoah just once after his Triple-Crown wins in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont, and he cruised to a victory at the Haskell Invitational.
They said he would close out his racing career in the Breeders' Cup Classic in October in Lexington, Ky. It seemed like a perfect way to go out.
Then came rumblings they might add another race or two, and they finally settled on running Saturday at Saratoga Race Course.
Many thought it would be just another dominating performance for the powerful horse. But it seemed to me like the perfect place for a letdown before the big sendoff, and that's just what we got.
Nicknamed "The Spa" for nearby mineral springs, the track in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is also known as the "Graveyard of Favorites." The upsets that have taken place there are too numerous to list.
But to sum it up as quickly as possible, two of the best horses of all time - Secretariat and Man o' War - both lost there. Enough said.
So when American Pharoah lost Saturday to Keen Ice, it was the least suprising news I've received in a long time. Not nearly often enough do we get to see someone go out on top, and this is another time where a great story won't have a great ending.