WASHINGTON - A confrontation between Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta would have generated more attention and excitement than any horse race in years. But because the two great females didn't face each other on the track, their fans are now pouring their passions into the debate over which one deserves to be the Horse of the Year.
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NEW YORK - The choice between Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta as America's Horse of the Year for 2009 is a joyless and ultimately maddening one.
Racing's cheerleaders say the debate itself is good for the sport, keeping discussion of the racing season alive during its December doldrums and stirring passions among casual fans. That might be true if this were merely a difficult choice between two horses with comparable campaigns whose paths had crossed at least once during the season.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The reaction earlier this month to the upgrading of certain stakes events was cause for discomfort. The lasting image was of racetrack executives, fidgetting with their doffed hats, eyes submissively downcast and loafers shuffling the carpet as they stood before the altar of the graded stakes committee, grateful for crumbs.
WASHINGTON - For more than a decade, people in the Maryland horse racing industry have dreamed that their sport could be revived by the legalization of slot machines. Those hopes were crushed Monday night.
When the Anne Arundel County Council approved a slot-machine complex at the Arundel Mills shopping mall, its vote signified that Laurel Park won't get slots. The council's decision will surely be followed by legal challenges and endless political wrangling, but if the decision stands, its consequences seem clear:
ARCADIA, Calif. - After the exciting performances of Lookin at Lucky and Blind Luck in Hollywood Park's final flurry of ontrack action last weekend, one would think the appetite for a first-class horse racing experience would be alive and thriving. Now, on Saturday, it's Santa Anita's turn to serve.
Suddenly, as if by seasonal magic, the spirit in the air turns to giving. James Cameron has presented us with another reason not to go to the movies. Tiger Woods is giving the rest of the PGA Tour a free pass in 2010. Joe Lieberman soon will be tied in a bright red ribbon and given the heave-ho by his former Democratic pals.
It's too late for Hanukkah gifts, I know. Still, I thought this might be a good time to offer a last-chance wish list of Christmas treats for a few of the good little girls and boys who populate the racing game.
NEW YORK - In the wake of Sea the Stars we are presented with St Nicholas Abbey, who took control of the European juvenile division just two weeks after the retirement of the six-time Group 1 winner.
There are similarities between the two. If anything, St Nicholas Abbey has an edge at this early stage. Both won the one-mile, Group 2 Beresford Stakes at the Curragh, St Nicholas Abbey by three-quarters of a length in his second start, Sea the Stars by a half-length in his third start, after which he was put away for the winter.
Winning a Breeders' Cup race - any Breeders' Cup race - can make a fellow feel like he's sitting on top of the racing world. Still, it's never a good idea to get used to the view.
Brian Koriner had the biggest day of his training career on Nov. 7 when the Keith Card-owned California Flag came flying down the Santa Anita hillside to win the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint by 1 3/4 lengths. No sooner had the print dried on the charts that Koriner had California Flag on a plane to the Far East, hoping to strike while the gray gelding was hot in the $1.2 million Hong Kong Sprint.