WASHINGTON - When a long-awaited report on drugs and integrity in racing was released Sunday, a member of the task force preparing it offered an optimistic summary.
"The findings were very positive for the racing business," said Paul Oreffice, a New York Racing Association trustee and the former chairman of the Dow Chemical Company. "All the speculation about 'juicing' is just that - speculation."
DEL MAR, Calif. - Humberto Ascanio was trying to describe how it felt to be first mate aboard the fastest ship on the ocean, laden with silver and gold.
"It's a feeling of confidence, like every horse in every stall can do whatever you think they can do," he said. "It doesn't happen all the time. There's no way it can happen every day. But when it does, like it's happening now, it's the best feeling in the world."
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Bobby Frankel had a terrific coast-to-coast weekend with victories in three 1 1/4-mile stakes. Arlington Park and its signature race, the Arlington Million, also fared handsomely, despite, or in a sense because of, showers Saturday morning which put some yield into the turf course.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Bill Shoemaker turns 70 on Sunday. He wasn't supposed to make it to the end of his first day.
He certainly figured that 59 was the end of the line in the spring of 1991, when his life hung by a thread in the emergency room of a suburban L.A. hospital. But he survived, just like he survived his premature birth, more than 40 years of riding, and that crippling highway wreck 10 years ago. He lives in a wheelchair. He can't move his arms or his legs. And on Sunday he turns 70.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Arlington Park's merger with Churchill Downs, announced last year, appears to be working well. Wagering ontrack is up 4 percent and overall wagering is up 17 percent. Best of all, attendance is up 5 percent, at least partially a reaction to good racing. The key is the development of a racing circuit, ensuring a stream of horses going from Churchill Downs's spring meeting to Arlington's summer meeting, and then returning to Kentucky tracks in the fall. The circuit concept is not fully in place as yet, but it is developing, to the benefit of all concerned.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Woody Allen once said that 90 percent of life is just showing up. It's a sentiment too scarce in American stakes racing these days.
Million-dollar races in California routinely draw four- to six-horse fields. The Jim Dandy two weeks ago offered $600,000 and Grade 1 credentials but attracted just half a dozen. Juvenile stakes around the country this month have rarely exceeded half a gateful. Saratoga is begging for entrants for Saturday's $1 million Travers, whether or not Point Given runs.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - . . . and still sensational.
No race has ever had a more electrifying inaugural than the Arlington Million, on the murky August afternoon in 1981 when John Henry thundered his way into the hearts of racing fans around the world. An established star with important credits, he was supposed to run well and was part of a heavily favored entry facing 10 opponents in a strong international field assembled for the first million-dollar race.
DEL MAR, Calif. - For those who require horse racing to be conducted at the highest levels, this weekend should satisfy their deepest psychological needs.
From Del Mar to Arlington to Saratoga, there are two races worth a million dollars, a couple more at $750,000, and another $700,000 just laying out there on the grass in stakes for 3-year-old colts and 3-year-old fillies.
Want big names? You've got Aptitude and Astra, Flute and Futural, Captain Steve and The Seven Seas. Skimming is always worth the price of admission.
WASHINGTON - It was 24 summers ago that a pair of 2-year-olds battled down the stretch at Saratoga Race Course, displaying such speed and tenacity that they both seemed to be exceptional talents. Affirmed and Alydar were living up to the tradition that the best-bred young prospects make their marks at Saratoga, and their confrontation in the Hopeful Stakes was just a precursor to one of the most famous rivalries in the sport's history.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Marco Ramirez entered the Del Mar walking ring last Monday afternoon wearing a set of the world's most famous silks and sucking on the remains of a frozen fruit bar. He did not look like a man who was about to take his life in his hands.
Over the past two months, Ramirez had shed some 20 pounds for this moment, and now he was about to ride a 3-year-old son of Mr. Prospector, named Civilisation, in a one-mile maiden race on the Del Mar turf.