INGLEWOOD, Calif. - There's rain, and then there's Oregon rain. The hurricane-force winds that ripped the great Northwest this week have threatened to shift the conversation from climate change to Armageddon. Five deaths were reported, towns were flooded, and transportation disrupted from central Oregon to the Canadian border.
"It was a hurricane," reported Marie Jones from her home in Eugene, 100 miles south of Portland. "In the East, they give them names. Up here, we just call them winter storms. But it was a hurricane."
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DRF Past Performances
Lou Raffetto thought he was eavesdropping at his own funeral. There he was, last Sunday night at Laurel Park, the toast of the annual horsemen's holiday party at the track just four days after being ousted as president and CEO of the Maryland Jockey Club. Compliments were flowing, and Raffetto would like to think it wasn't just the toddies talking.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Greg's Gold and In Summation will attract most of the attention Sunday afternoon when they lead the field for the $100,000 Vernon Underwood at six furlongs over Hollywood Park's artificial main track, and rightfully so.
The last time they met, In Summation beat Greg's Gold by a nose in the Bing Crosby at Del Mar, a Grade 1 barnburner that had the house of nearly 17,000 rocking to the rafters. It was great sport, and a shame that only one of the two could be declared a winner. Now they are back for more.
The North American Graded Stakes Committee does a generally credible job of assigning Grade 1, 2, or 3 status to the nation's most important stakes races, and gets little but grief for its efforts. Theirs is a thankless and politically tricky task, ripe for criticism from track officials who think their major events have been snubbed and owner-breeders who want nothing but expanded opportunities to dress up their horses' records for breeding and sales purposes.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - For those who forgot Jon Court's 47th birthday on Nov. 23, forget about it. He took care of the party, the cake, and all the presents when he shocked the field in the $400,000 Citation Handicap at Hollywood Park aboard Lang Field at odds of 18-1.
With a final, determined lunge at the end of 1 1/8 miles on firm grass, Lang Field rescued Court's disappointing 2007 season by beating the respected Zann by a quarter of a length.
TUCSON, Ariz. - When the 4-year-old filly Kettleoneup romped to a 3o3/4-length victory in the $324,300 Falls City Handicap last Thursday afternoon at Churchill Downs, beating High Heels and even-money favorite Panty Raid, it sent no major vibrations reverberating through Thoroughbred racing.
It did send a message, however, worth noting on both sides of the Thoroughbred-harness aisle.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The DaVinci Code? Hah. Boring twaddle when compared to the Medici Code.
Someday it might even make a movie, with Tom Hanks in the role of the beleaguered horse trainer, trying to sort through the maze of mysterious occurrences befalling the stable's marquee runner. Okay, so Hanks might need to do a little Bobby De Niro shapeshifting to play Darrell Vienna. But hey, does anyone really think Jesse James looked like Brad Pitt?
NEW YORK - The 17 graded stakes races being run over this four-day holiday weekend make up a strong and interesting sort of national racing festival four weeks after the Breeders' Cup. They also illustrate how the continued use of weight assignments in stakes racing is an inconsistent and outdated mess that adds nothing to highest level of the sport except confusion while potentially damaging the integrity of the results.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It should not require a special day to be thankful that grown men and women have the ability to bet on Thoroughbred racing from the comfort and safety of their own computers, even though it takes a considerable amount of political lobbying to continue to make it happen.