Merv Griffin has won 15 Emmy Awards, had a No. 1 song, and created two of the most popular game shows in television history. A victory in Saturday's Breeders' Cup Juvenile with Stevie Wonderboy would trump it all.
"The Emmys are wonderful; there's nothing to match the winner's circle," Griffin said in a recent telephone interview.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Graham Motion was an unknown trainer on the national stage when Better Talk Now pulled a 27-1 upset in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Lone Star Park last year.
When the same horse leads Motion's four-horse team at Saturday's Breeders' Cup at Belmont Park, bettors will know what to expect from Motion. A native of England, Motion, 41, has been reminding racegoers throughout the year that his Maryland-based operation turns out contenders in many of the nation's top races.
Breeders' Cup expects to raise the total amount of purses for its eight races from $14 million to $20 million within the next several years, the organization's president, D.G. Van Clief, said Thursday.
Van Clief said that a proposal to raise the purses in 2006 and 2007 will be discussed at the organization's next board meeting on Nov. 4. The proposal has already been endorsed by the racing and nomination committee of the Breeders' Cup, which last met in early October at Keeneland.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Even now, 15 years after the fact, the memory of Go for Wand's fatal breakdown in the 1990 Breeders' Cup Distaff still stirs the emotions in Tony and Sherri Mitchell.
Back then the Mitchells worked for Go for Wand's trainer, Billy Badgett. Tony was one of two assistants and also served as an exercise rider. Sherri was also an exercise rider.
ELMONT, N.Y. - When the horses have come back to be unsaddled after the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, and are being walked bareback to their stalls, it will mark the end of an era. Next year at this time, if things go according to plan, Riskaverse, Wonder Again, and Megahertz will have shed their racing gear. They will be grazing in some field, pregnant with their first foal.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Who says you can't teach an old horse new tricks?
Certainly not trainer Gary Mandella, who has turned the 6-year-old Taste of Paradise from a very nice horse into one of the leading contenders behind the odds-on favorite, Lost in the Fog, in Saturday's $1,060,000 .
ELMONT, N.Y. - They rolled out the welcome mat on Wednesday at Belmont Park and lined it with banana peels.
Starcraft, who has traveled from the Antipodes to Europe, and on to America in order to make his first start on dirt - for which his owner had to pony up an $800,000 supplemental fee - landed the outside post when 14 runners were entered Wednesday in the on Saturday at Belmont Park.
Starcraft, welcome to New York!
ELMONT, N.Y. - Familiar foes First Samurai and Henny Hughes will line up side by side, and the majority of top contenders drew outside post positions in Saturday's $1,590,000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Belmont Park.
First Samurai drew post 9 and was installed as the 8-5 favorite, while Henny Hughes is to his immediate outside and was made 5-1 second choice by Belmont oddsmaker Eric Donovan.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Adieu and Folklore have been so close this year that perhaps something as simple as post position could make the difference when the two meet for a fourth time in Saturday's $1,060,000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Belmont Park.
