Champion rider comes to defense of apprentice award
I have been reading with great disappointment about a growing movement to do away with the Eclipse Award for apprentice jockey. Turf writers I have great respect for have raised all kinds of reasons for the award's demise. I feel that the argument being made is a weak one and feel compelled to respond to this unfair and shortsighted idea.
Despite a rapid response, paramedics from the Alameda County Fair and the county’s fire department were unable to save the life of jockey Jorge Herrera after he suffered head injuries in a spill at Pleasanton last July, the California Horse Racing Board announced in a report on Thursday.
The eighth season of Countdown to the Crown returns as one of the most comprehensive handicapper’s scouting reports of the 3-year-old scene. Posted each Friday at DRF.com from Jan. 4 through the Belmont Stakes, Countdown keeps you apprised of the rising stars of the 3-year-old class from the maiden ranks through the Grade 1 stakes. You can access daily updates, opinions and interactive features at Countdowntothecrown.com as well.
Straight from the gate
If Ian Wilkes wanted to argue that the horse he trains, Fort Larned, should be 2012’s Horse of the Year, he would have ammunition. Fort Larned won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Breeders’ Cup Classic winners almost automatically enter Horse of the Year conversation.
Richard Dutrow Jr., the trainer whose appeal of a 10-year suspension was thrown out of New York’s highest court Tuesday, will likely be able to continue to train throughout the weekend under a stay that cannot legally be lifted until early next week, according to state racing officials.
Dutrow has been allowed to continue to train horses under a stay issued shortly after the suspension was issued in October 2011.
Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens retired in 2005 after winning 4,888 races, three Kentucky Derbies, eight Breeders’ Cup races, and an Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding jockey in 1998. On Jan. 3, he announced a comeback to race riding and rode his first race Sunday, finishing third on the $50,000 claimer Jebrica.
J. Paul Reddam experienced the sort of year in 2012 that keeps most Thoroughbred owners committed to the business, despite its many uncertainties. The Ontario-born Reddam, 57, burst onto the national scene last spring when I’ll Have Another scored wins in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and entered Belmont Stakes week as one of the more popular, and, according to many, best candidates in recent years to end the Triple Crown drought.
Richard and Karen Papiese’s Midwest Thoroughbreds ranked at the top of the North American owners’ list in both earnings and wins in 2011, and the multi-state operation stepped up the pace in 2012, finishing a runaway leader in wins and earnings in North America, and breaking a decades-old single-season win mark.
[bc_video_id:282066:]As a part of the Eclipse Awards festivities, and to salute horseplayers throughout North America, the Eclipses will honor Michael Beychok, who won the $1 million first-place prize and title of 2012 Daily Racing Form/National Thoroughbred Racing Association Handicapper of the Year by a single dollar at the 13th annual DRF/NTRA National Handicapping Championship last January at Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
