Pressure tactics in the Belmont hurt the game
Much has been written about the Belmont Stakes and why Smarty Jones did not win. Being a race fan for more than 45 years and now a breeder and Thoroughbred owner, I came to a final analysis of the race that holds that the idea of some jockeys, owners, or trainers in the Belmont was not to win but to prevent Smarty from winning. Was it blatant - no. Can other excuses cover up the truth? Only the participants can say.
The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company will conduct under-tack shows Saturday and Sunday for its 2-year-old auction next Tuesday and Wednesday, with the shows starting each day at 8 a.m. in Ocala, Fla. Hip Nos. 1 to 266 will breeze Saturday, Hip Nos. 267 to 533 on Sunday. . . . Chance Rollins, currently tied for fifth in the Bay Meadows jockey standings, was expected to miss two or three days after spraining his right wrist in a fall when his mount, Reds Pal, propped badly in the first turn of a $40,000 claiming race Wednesday. X-rays were negative. . . .
Saturday racecards for Bay Meadows, Belmont Park, Beulah, Calder Race Course, Delaware Park, Evangeline Downs, Hawthorne, Hoosier Park, Lone Star Park, Louisiana Downs, Mountaineer Park, Pimlico, Santa Anita and Woodbine will include the past performances for the NTRA Pick 4 National Wager, a pick four wager linking together four major stakes races.
The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has reported it found no sign of rabies in tissue samples from a 2-year-old colt who was euthanized at Calder after developing severe neurological symptoms on May 20.
Tissue from the colt, Truly Proud, who was trained by Bill Cesare, was originally sent to the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, where pathologists said they had found signs of the rabies virus in the horse's brain. Additional tests by the Florida Department of Agriculture were inconclusive, prompting examination by the Centers for Disease Control.
Mineshaft, last year's Horse of the Year, has been named the winner of the Secretariat Award by the New York Turf Writers Association.
The Secretariat Award, as well as five other awards from the writers, will be presented Aug. 23 at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Churchill Downs and Bank One will host the 2004 Out to Pasture Party, to benefit the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, at the track's Triple Crown Ballroom after racing June 12. Ticket information is available at (502) 636-4519. . . . Calumet Farm will dedicate a memorial to 1977's champion 3-year-old filly, Our Mims, at its equine cemetery on June 26. Our Mims died in December 2003 and is buried at Calumet.
For owner Betty Jane Burlin, the time has come to say good-bye to her two-time champion Quarter Horse, Taylor Fit.
Thursday at 3 p.m. at the Horse Park near Lexington, Ky., Tailor Fit will become the Quarter Horse representative at the park's Hall of Champions at a ceremony in his honor. The champion was donated to the Horse Park by Burlin.
Tailor Fit, 9, is the second Quarter Horse representative in the Hall of Champions, following world champion Sgt. Pepper Feature, who resided at the Horse Park from 1988 until his death on Oct. 13, 2003, at the age of 25.
A law firm appointed by a federal court to monitor the New York Racing Association has issued its first progress report to the court, state officials announced Monday.
The monitor, the Manhattan law firm Getnick and Getnick, was appointed on March 1 by a federal judge for the Eastern District of New York to ensure that NYRA complies with the conditions of its deferred prosecution agreement. NYRA reached the agreement last year after being indicted on federal tax-fraud charges.