Nick Vaccarezza remembers the moment he knew it was not a drill. The pop-pop-pops coming from the freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., were the real thing – gunfire – because Nick had fired a gun before. With his younger brother Mike safely under his wing, Nick and a friend turned to each other and said, “Let’s go.” They bolted away from the ballfield dugout that was their shooter drill evacuation zone and hit the eight-foot fence at the school’s perimeter on the fly, then made a beeline to the Wal-Mart Supercenter a long block to the west.
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DRF Past Performances
The nominations were released Thursday for the Thoroughbred racing Hall of Fame, class of 2018, and the ballots have been mailed, which means it is time once again for the 170 or so voters to play God with the fate of the 10 candidates up for induction.
But wait. Is that really true? Do the voters need to go all Sophie’s Choice on the process, tearing their hair in agony while picking and choosing among a roster of the game’s most noteworthy players?
And the children shall lead us. At least, that’s the way it seemed in Thoroughbred racing across the land Sunday, when the youth movement among U.S. jockeys delivered a message no one could ignore.
At Santa Anita, the rise of Drayden Van Dyke, 23, has been especially inspiring in the wake of his serious arm fracture of a year ago. He won with three of five mounts Sunday, including a breathtaking romp aboard the promising 3-year-old Justify for Bob Baffert.
It’s important to remember that the road to the Kentucky Derby is not linear. We are not going to have a Derby prep season that sequentially builds on what previously transpired in terms of quality and strength. Sure, it would be nice if things were all nice and neat like that, but it doesn’t work that way.
This is a good time to remind oneself of that, on the morning after a head-scratching Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds that threw one of the first big monkey wrenches into a 2018 Kentucky Derby prep season that will almost certainly see a few more.
There are two surefire ingredients of near-certain failure when it comes to the recipe for a Thoroughbred racehorse. First, bring him into this world as a full brother to a champion. Then, name him for a friend.
On Monday at Santa Anita, the 3-year-old colt Faversham will take a serious step toward bucking the trend. The son of Lucky Pulpit, a maiden with only one start under his belt, will run in the $200,000 California Cup Derby at a mile and one-sixteenth on the main track, with his namesake in the holiday crowd and the specter of big brother looming large.
As CEO of MGM, Gary Barber is a key player in the entertainment business. “Wonder Woman,” starring Gal Gadot, was one of the biggest, most entertaining hits of the 2017 movie season. It makes perfect sense, therefore, that Barber should own a filly of quality named Wonder Gadot.
“That’s how highly we thought of her,” Barber said this week, as Wonder Gadot was preparing to run in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Saturday at the Fair Grounds.
Saturday was a “Champions Day” of sorts, as 2017 Eclipse Award winners Unique Bella and World Approval (who was also a finalist for Horse of the Year), made their 2018 debuts, and came away winners.
I realize it might sound silly gushing about Unique Bella because, as the 1-10 favorite in Santa Anita’s Santa Maria Stakes, she was supposed to win, and win big. But that’s the kind of special horse Unique Bella is, because even if she went out and did what she was supposed to do, she still makes you want to sing her praises.
On Nov. 18, 2017, at Punchestown Race Course in Ireland, the heavily favored mare Let’s Dance went down at the fourth-from-last hurdle and tumbled along the ground with her jockey, Ruby Walsh. Let’s Dance emerged unscathed, but Walsh, 38, fractured the tibia of his right leg.