HALLANDALE, Fla. - Before he appeared Saturday at Gulfstream Park, Lost in the Fog had never competed at a top-class track or defeated a horse of any consequence. Yet he was already the most talked-about and coveted 3-year-old in America. "He has grabbed more headlines than Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston," handicapper Byron King wrote in Daily Racing Form.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A little bit of trust never hurts.
John Sadler had enough faith in Larry Benavidez to give his assistant the green light to claim a 3-year-old named Musique Toujours Then, almost a year later, owners Lloyd DeBruyker and Richard Glassman trusted Sadler and Benavidez when they recommended pulling Musique Toujours out of training, even though the horse had just run a solid third in a tough Del Mar allowance and seemed on target for the California Cup Classic.
ARCADIA, Calif. - It's tough to say goodbye, especially when the ride has been so sweet. Just ask Michael Paulson, or Ken Davis.
Paulson's run with Azeri has ended with her third straight championship season - as noted in the special Eclipse Awards section of today's Daily Racing Form. As the son of Azeri's breeder, the late Allen Paulson, Michael Paulson took special pride in referring to Azeri as "One last tribute to my father's great breeding efforts and commitment to racing."
NEW YORK - The richest prize in racing last weekend was neither Saturday's $150,000 San Marcos nor Sunday's $150,000 Palos Verdes, but the $414,000 Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship at Bally's in Las Vegas. This weekend, even the $1 million purse for the Sunshine Millions Classic at Gulfstream may be equaled by a new Horseplayer World Series at the Orleans.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Since the Sunshine Millions is all about gloryifying the Thoroughbred product of Florida and California, it would be only right for a certain third-generation West Coast trainer to take home a serious piece of the action on Saturday afternoon.
Marty Jones - the 34-year-old son of Gary and grandson of Farrell - is the latest in a line that has been a part of the California racing scene since the glory days of Seabiscuit more than 65 years ago.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - For a moment, it was 1952 all over again, and Richard Nixon was trying to save his political hide by playing down slush fund allegations and diverting attention with references to his wife's "good Republican cloth coat" and his daughter's dog, Checkers.
A few beats later, Merv Griffin appeared from out of a misty cloud of talk show nostalgia, not quite Johnny Carson but very smooth, needing only Arthur Treacher and a desk to put the world at ease.
TUCSON, Ariz. - With the wild horses loose, galloping roughshod over media coast to coast, New York has decided to close the barn door. It now will test for milkshakes.
There was a lot of nonsense printed after the revelation of milkshaking and worse at Aqueduct, none more nonsensical than the argument that it is difficult to test for milkshakes.
Harness racing has been doing it for years, Australia has been doing it regularly, California has been doing it since last year.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Numbers tend to render judgment senseless. The bigger the number, the dumber the conclusions. A building isn't the best because it's the tallest. "Titanic," with its $1.8 billion in ticket sales, is hardly the greatest movie of all time. And the United States is far from the biggest deadbeat on earth, just because the size of its national debt is a staggering $7.6 trillion (although it does look pretty bad when all the zeroes are used).
NEW YORK - A week after three associates of the Gambino crime family were indicted for operating an illegal gambling operation, there are still nearly as many unanswered questions about its relevance to Thoroughbred racing as there are charges in the 88-count indictment.
