TUCSON, Ariz. - Almost all that can be said about the Magna Entertainment Corp. bankruptcy already has been said.
But not quite.
Media coverage of the event shows clearly that Frank Stronach did not fail entirely, as the stories implied. In fact, they were a testimonial that he accomplished what he said he would, although certainly not with the result he hoped for.
ARCADIA, Calif. - So, what kind of day did you have last Saturday?
If you were Bobby Frankel, you spent the afternoon strapped to the back of a wild tiger, coming within a nose and a length of sweeping all three featured events but leaving the place feeling lucky to have escaped with only Stardom Bound's squeaker in the Santa Anita Oaks.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A list published in Mental Floss, an online magazine, offered a collection of famous people who had gone through some kind of bankruptcy or complete business failure. They included Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Burt Reynolds, and Abraham Lincoln.
NEW YORK - When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to the Presidency in 1932, he ran on a Democratic platform that opposed Prohibition, and a repeal was overwhelmingly approved before the end of his first year in office. A change of power in Washington and dire economic times facilitated the argument that it was better to tax and regulate a popular activity than to criminalize it and drive it underground.
ARCADIA, Calif - For one thing, the place didn't look any different. On Thursday morning, as the news of Magna Entertainment's bankruptcy filing made the rounds, there seemed to be no impact on the lush peace of the Santa Anita paddock gardens. The classic fountain, etched with the names of winners of the Santa Anita Derby and Handicap, was vigorously pumping, and the eastward vistas from the grandstand seats still offered the iconic California contrast of towering palms in the foreground and snowcapped Mt. Baldy in the distance.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The idea of a stable winning the Santa Anita Handicap two years in a row with two different horses is not that outrageous. Tom Smith did it in 1939 and 1940 with Kayak and Seabiscuit. Charlie Whittingham did it in 1985 and 1986 with Lord at War and Greinton. Richard Mandella did it in 1997 and 1998 with Siphon and Malek.
Let's see . . . 72 runnings . . . Smith, Whittingham, Mandella . . . yep, that's it. Guess the idea is pretty outrageous after all.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Julio Canani was on the roof. Don't worry. It was no big deal. In the wake of The Pamplemousse's comprehensive victory in the Sham Stakes a half-hour earlier, the trainer was hardly a candidate to jump for anything but joy. He knows all the nooks and crannies of Santa Anita, though, and going from the claustrophobia of the Directors Room to the raucous expanse of the blue-collar friendly Frontrunner Restaurant required merely a quick elevator trip to the press box level, a 25-yard trot across the roof, and descent through a winding, backstage staircase. Voila!
NEW YORK - If horses were voted into Racing's Hall of Fame the way that athletes are in most other sports, there might be three females and no males inducted this year. Instead, due to a misguided system under which exactly one horse of each sex must be enshrined each year, voters are left with two extremely difficult choices among three shaky males and three thoroughly deserving females.
If Eddie Maple is going to be elected to the Hall of Fame this time around, he needs a hook, a sob story, a reason for voters to cuddle up. Just look at the opposition.
Alex Solis, reborn after a serious injury at age 44, is a battle-scarred veteran with more than $200 million in purses, three Breeders' Cup wins, a Preakness, a wine label, and a recurring part on a reality TV show. You can't buy publicity like that.