ARCADIA, Calif. - The good folks at Sunland Park have tried just about everything possible to attract the type of field that will cause their Sunland Derby to be recognized by the American Graded Stakes Committee.
Over its seven runnings, the purse has been cranked up to keep pace with the major Kentucky Derby preps, to an all-time high of $800,000 for this year's running on Sunday.
ARCADIA, Calif. - It has been nearly a week now since Hold Me Back jumped into the Kentucky Derby picture by winning the Lane's End Stakes at Turfway Park. And what's this? Bill Mott still trains him?
Mott has a right to feel a little punchy this year, watching from afar as two of his former runners, Pioneerof the Nile and Life Is Sweet, have swept to major victories at Santa Anita for other stables. As Mott has noted often, though, such things are part of the profession. Get used to it or go drive a bus.
It would be a stretch to suggest that Cigar made the Dubai World Cup the event it is today, now that it has gone from a wild-eyed, one-shot deal in the desert to a festival that rivals the Breeders' Cup in scope and riches. Still, Cigar's victory over Soul of the Matter in that first World Cup, on March 27, 1996, gave Sheikh Mohammed exactly what he needed: ironclad proof that an American star could travel halfway around the globe and reproduce the form that made him a star in the first place.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The recent tempest in a spit cup over claiming rules in California - apparently resolved now except for a stray lawsuit or two - could have been avoided if the sport's impresarios had long ago taken a more visionary approach to the welfare of both the horse and the game itself and begun weaning themselves from their dependency on claiming races.
Man, things move fast in the horse business. I'm away only a few days and just look at what havoc has rained down. Time to get current.
Let's start up there on America's great northern tier, where the deer and the antelope play. Or something like that. The story has been brewing for a while, but apparently there are people in high government places in both North Dakota and Montana who hope to make their states the new horse slaughter havens of the U.S.A.
NEW YORK - Seven years and four months ago, New York state lawmakers voted to allow slot machines at Aqueduct Race Track. By the most conservative estimates, even a small slice of the revenue from a monopoly on one-armed bandits in the nation's largest city would flood racing's coffers, building sparkling new facilities and ushering in an era of $100,000 maiden races.