Saddlesore Galactica

"Saddlesore Galactica"
The Simpsons episode
Homer collects a trophy after "Furious D" wins the Springfield Derby.
Episode no.	Season 11 Episode 13
Directed by	Lance Kramer
Written by	Tim Long
Production code	BABF09
Original air date	February 6, 2000 (2000-02-06)
Guest appearances
Randy Bachman as himself Trevor Denman as himself C.F. Turner as himself Jim Cummings as Duncan
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"Substitute teachers are not scabs"
Couch gag	The Simpsons are karate students and chop up the couch. Homer does a karate flip as he turns the television on with the remote control.
Commentary	Tim Long Lance Kramer Mike Scully Matt Groening George Meyer Ian Maxtone-Graham Matt Selman Tom Martin
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Mansion Family" Next → "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily"
The Simpsons season 11
List of episodes

"Saddlesore Galactica" is the thirteenth episode of the eleventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 6, 2000. In the episode, the Simpson family rescues a diving horse named Duncan from an abusive owner and keeps him as a pet. When the cost of keeping Duncan rises, Homer and Bart train him to be a racehorse. Duncan wins several races and, as a result, Homer is threatened with death by a group of jockeys. Meanwhile, Lisa is upset over her school unfairly losing the musical band competition at a state fair and writes a letter to U.S. President Bill Clinton in protest.

The episode features several guest appearances; horse race caller Trevor Denman stars as himself, commentating the races in the episode, and voice artist Jim Cummings provides the animal sounds made by Duncan. Randy Bachman and Fred Turner appear as themselves as their rock band Bachman–Turner Overdrive performs at the state fair. "Saddlesore Galactica" was written by Tim Long and directed by Lance Kramer. A number of meta-references are included in the episode, such as the character Comic Book Guy telling the Simpsons that they have owned a horse before in the episode "Lisa's Pony".

Around 9.6 million American homes tuned in to watch the episode during its original airing. In 2008, it was released on DVD, along with the rest of the episodes of the eleventh season. "Saddlesore Galactica" is despised by many television critics and fans, according to Long. It has been described by About.com's Nancy Basile as one of the season's worst episodes, by Marco Ursi of Maclean's as the worst episode of the series, and has frequently been cited by fans as an example of the show jumping the shark. Criticism has been directed at its outlandish plot, which, among other things, features elf-like jockeys who lure Homer into their secret land where they threaten him to stop Duncan from winning.