ARCADIA, Calif. - What does Steve Asmussen have to do to win an Eclipse Award? Learn to tap dance? Rope tricks? Cure the common cold?
Asmussen has been among the finalists for the Eclipse Award in three of the past four years. In 2002, when he won his first national title with 407 winners, he lost the Eclipse Award to earnings champ Bobby Frankel. In 2004, when the Asmussen runners set a record by winning an ungodly 555 races, the Eclipse went to Todd Pletcher, who also led in earnings.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - For decades, Gulfstream Park has been one of the most pleasant racetracks on earth. Its distinguishing feature was the large paddock and walking ring behind the grandstand, where fans could watch the horses while sitting under blue skies and palm trees.
ARCADIA, Calif. - When the invitations for the 1982 Marlboro Cup at Belmont Park were issued, Aaron Jones was aghast when he discovered that Lemhi Gold, his homebred pride and joy, was left off the list for the $400,000, all-star event.
"I called their racing office to find out what was going on," Jones recalled at the time. "They told me that my horse wasn't invited because he was a grass horse, and the race was on the dirt."
NEW YORK - At long last, the American racing industry seems to be embracing the idea that every business needs to change the content and pricing of its retail products on a regular basis to retain and attract customers.
Last year, dime superfectas spread from a handful of small tracks to most major venues, and new wagers such as the Choose Six enjoyed trial runs. The new year has seen a flurry of similar developments:
ARCADIA, Calif. - When last seen by the racing public, Stevie Wonderboy was bidding farewell to the Belmont Park winner's circle after beating a Breeders' Cup Juvenile field that included Henny Hughes, First Samurai, and Brother Derek on Oct. 29.
He's back.
ARCADIA, Calif. - On Saturday afternoon, Santa Anita Park management will take the unusual step of honoring a former general manager with the unveiling of a bronze bust in the lush paddock gardens.
In this case, however, Chris McCarron is getting busted not for his short stint in the executive suite, but for the breadth and depth of his work between Santa Anita's white rails. His bronze, by the brilliant Nina Kaiser, will sit stage left in a newly configured island of statuary near the paddock, joining the images of John Longden, Bill Shoemaker, and Laffit Pincay.
ARCADIA, Calif. - This is the week the big boy returns - Stevie Wonderboy, that is - when the Breeders' Cup winner and uncrowned champion of the division begins his 3-year-old campaign on Saturday in the one-mile San Rafael Stakes.
There is a chance, however, that Stevie Wonderboy could end up sharing at least a piece of the attention with the grand old man himself, Full Moon Madness, who has a race circled on Saturday's undercard. And yes, for those skywatchers in the crowd, Jan. 14 marks the fullest moon of the lunar month.
TUCSON, Ariz. - Driving down coastal highway A1A in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., two years ago, heading toward Gulfstream Park, I encountered a dead-stop traffic jam approaching one of the rising bridges along the waterway.
Nearing it, I saw pedestrians lined up on the seaward edge, and I thought a car had gone off the bridge into the water. Then, as I reached the crest, I looked left, and heading toward me was the most massive sight I had ever seen on water: the gargantuan Queen Mary II, making her first appearance in Florida.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Okay, ladies, it's safe to come out and play. That mean, old Megahertz is gone, off to terrorize some stud in the breeding shed, which means the rich schedule of filly and mare grass racing in Southern California is once again up for grabs.
NEW YORK - The inner-track meeting at Aqueduct has long been perceived as the black hole of New York racing, a four-month stretch of tiny fields racing on an antifreeze-soaked bullring where nothing but inside speed can win and nothing important ever happens.
