The New York Racing Association appeared Friday to have averted a strike by mutuel tellers for Saturday's Belmont Stakes card. NYRA tellers said Friday that they had dropped strike plans, and NYRA said it expected no problems from clerks for the card. . . . River Downs set a live handle record Wednesday when $1,679,038 was bet on the track's nine-race program. The previous record of $1,617,778 was set July 6, 2000. . . .
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The gene pool in Kentucky getting shallow
Now that a New York- and Pennsylvania-bred have won the last two runnings of the Kentucky Derby, will a Kentucky-bred ever win the Derby again?
I guess the folks in Kentucky are just now finding out that maybe it was not in best interests of Kentucky, or the Unites States, for that matter, to let hundreds if not thousands of their best broodmares to be sold to Japan and a few other countries in the late 1980's and most of the 1990's. Not to mention top stallion prospects such as Sunday Silence.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Dr. David Richardson will be watching the 136th Belmont Stakes with more than a casual interest. As a longtime horse owner who was a relative, confidant, and close friend of the late Woody Stephens, Richardson will carry an incredible mix of emotions into the day, in no small part because of a near tragedy that befell him and his family five weeks ago Saturday.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The president of the union representing Belmont Park's mutuel clerks said on Thursday afternoon that mutuel tellers are considering a strike on Saturday, the day of the Belmont Stakes, because of dissatisfaction over recent negotiations with NYRA on a new contract.
* Private Lap ($2.60), one of only three horses left in the field after nine scratches when the race was moved from the turf to the main track, led from start to finish in the $48,503 Eight Thirty Stakes at Delaware Park.
* Proper Prado ($2.80) rallied from last entering the final turn in the $50,000 Prairie Mile for 3-year-olds to score a head victory over pacesetter It's Lucky at Prairie Meadows. Tim Doocy rode the winner for trainer Bob Holthus.
Excessive Barb broke the Bay Meadows' turf course five-furlong record Sunday, winning a $32,000 claimer in 56.32 seconds. The winner by six lengths, Excessive Barb broke the record of 56.71 set by Lytle Creek on Aug. 18, 2003, also in a $32,000 claimer. . . . Assiniboia Downs canceled the last seven races on Sunday's program after the jockeys refused to ride. Steady rain had created very sloppy track conditions. . . .
There's speed, and then there's California speed. At least that's what Slew's Prince will try to prove in Monday's $100,000 Turf Monster Handicap, a five-furlong turf sprint at Philadelphia Park. Fourteen 3-year-olds and up were entered in the Turf Monster, and it appears that 13 of them will have to come from off the pace.
For those who enjoy parimutuel betting with their steeplechase racing, Fair Hill, Md., is the place to be Monday. The National Steeplechase Association will run nine races there on Memorial Day - six over jumps and three on the flat - and for the only time all year will offer parimutuel wagering.
About 15,000 people are expected to enjoy the races at picnic tables and bleacher seats, and handle will probably reach around $200,000.
Post time at Fair Hill, located in northeastern Maryland, is 1 p.m.
Jeff Faul recorded his 3,000th career win Friday night at Evangeline Downs when he rode Princeton Star to victory in the ninth race. Faul, 42, has ridden nearly 23,000 horses with mount earnings in excess of $22.8 million. . . . Clark M. Holden, a farrier at racetracks across the country and, most recently, for Godolphin Stable in Dubai, died Friday at age 65. Holden, a professional rodeo rider before he came to the racetrack, lived in Oldsmar, Fla.