TUCSON, Ariz. - A bright teenage grandson, reading about the grandly named Friends of New York Racing, turned and said, "Gee, that's really altruistic. Why would they do that?"
I was impressed with the kid's vocabulary, but even more with his logic.
Why would they do that? Why would very busy and very successful racing executives from California, Kentucky, Ontario, and Georgia band together to solve the problems of racing in New York?
ARCADIA, Calif.- It has been raining without relent in Southern California now for, oh, the past year or so, and residents have been driven to desperate measures.
Plastic sheeting is flying off the shelves. Sandbags have become fashion statements. Spoiled house pets are being catheterized by the hundreds - "Rover ain't going out there" - while relatives from the Northeast call to brag about their fluffy, manageable snowdrifts.
Overheard in Burbank:
"Honey, I'm hydroplaning to the store. Need anything?"
ARCADIA, Calif. - Much to his chagrin, Ron Charles won't be in the stands at Santa Anita on Monday afternoon to watch his Irish mare Uraib take on a tough bunch in the $150,000 Buena Vista Handicap at a mile on the grass.
Chances are good, though, that Charles will be able to catch the race on Magna Entertainment Corporation's HRTV, since he will be on a business trip to Aurora, Ontario, deep in the Canadian belly of the Magna beast.
NEW YORK - I am undefeated for life playing the Magna 5, but only because my handle to date is precisely $0. That may change this Saturday, though, as two of the three things that have kept me out of the pool have disappeared.
This national pick five wager on winter Saturdays, composed of races from Magna tracks around the country, has been a mixed success since making its debut a year ago. The bet is handling right around its guaranteed level of $500,000, which isn't bad but could still be much better with some tinkering.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Racing's promoters drool over the prospect of real-life celebrities playing the game. Santa Anita was buzzing for days after Kevin Costner once breezed through the walking ring to watch one of his horses run. You would have thought the pope was in town whenever Jack Nicholson showed up to wave his cigar at Cigar. And now that Joe Pesci is a bona fide patron of the Thoroughbred sport . . . as we say in the suburbs of San Diego County, forget about it.
ARCADIA, Calif. - It was bound to happen sooner or later. On Saturday at Santa Anita, for the first time since his reinstatement by the California Horse Racing Board in January, Pat Valenzuela won a major race for one of the seven commissioners responsible for allowing the continuation of his career.
ARCADIA, Calif. - It's the little things that count. A nod here, a bob there. A last-second lunge in the shadow of the wire. In racing, great moments are defined in the narrowest of terms, and one man's ecstasy can easily translate into agony on the other side of the line.
Just ask Luis Seglin, or Bill Currin.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Sunday at Santa Anita Park, the first two-turn Grade 1 race of the year will be offered for older fillies and mares when the Santa Maria Handicap is run for the 49th consecutive year at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
Fair warning, though. For those who take the graded race system seriously, brace yourselves for a shock.
A victory in the Santa Maria by defending champ Star Parade, or Bayakoa Handicap winner Hollywood Story, Oak Tree Mile winner Musical Chimes, or the Clement L. Hirsch Handicap winner Miss Loren would hardly be a surprise.
NEW YORK - This is the time of the year when a sensible New York horseplayer should be taking his annual turnout. You can't play the game for 52 weeks a year without losing whatever's left of your mind, and the inner-track meeting at Aqueduct is the safest to skip in terms of continuity with the rest of the year. As they say about Vegas: what happens in February at Aqueduct stays in February at Aqueduct. Missing some maiden-claiming trips isn't going to cost you come Belmont and Saratoga.
