NEW YORK - A controversial race Tuesday at tiny Lingfield Park in the English countryside is making headlines in Britain and turning a harsh spotlight on an intriguing new form of wagering on horses: betting exchanges, which have been alternately heralded as a revolutionary convenience for customers or denounced as an invitation to larceny.
NEW YORK - Wednesday, March 3, 2004, is a date that shall live in parimutuel history. The largest pick six pool in the annals of American racing electrified horseplayers from coast to coast and provided some fascinating economic lessons about the racing business.
ARCADIA, Calif. - At first glance, it doesn't seem like such a big deal, winning the Santa Anita Derby and the Santa Anita Handicap. It's the same racetrack, after all, with only a furlong's difference between the two, and more often than not the Derby winner lives and trains just down the the stable road. So if a horse is good enough to win the Derby in April of his 3-year-old season, why should it be so hard to replicate that form in the Handicap just 11 months later?
LAS VEGAS - February 29 is by definition a special date, hitting the calendar just once every four years, and this year's bonus day could at least in theory be an absolutely magical one for the children of all ages who embraced last year's two biggest feel-good stories in the world of Thoroughbred racing. If life were really a storybook, this February 29 would be the date on which the beloved Funny Cide returned to glory by winning the New Orleans Handicap, several hours before the equally beloved "Seabiscuit" won the Oscar for Best Motion Picture of 2003.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The odds appear stacked against "Seabiscuit" winning the Oscar for Best Picture when the Academy Awards are handed out in Los Angeles on Sunday night.
In Las Vegas, where such propositions are required to be "for entertainment purposes only," casinos are making "Seabiscuit" 35-1 and higher in the face of their consensus favorite, "Lord of the Kings: The Return of the Ring." Or whatever it's called.
ARCADIA, Calif. - For better or worse, a trainer is known by the horses he trains. By that standard, John Russell ranked with the very best, for a good long time, beginning in the mid-1960's until his retirement in 1995.
He was not particular, either. If a good horse arrived it stayed a good horse in Russell's solicitous care, whether its name was Cool Mood, Susan's Girl, Tri Jet, Intrepid Hero, Majestic Light, Effervescing, Stark South, or Cee's Tizzy.
LAS VEGAS - It has been 25 years since a 2-year-old champion won the Kentucky Derby, and no Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner has ever won the roses. These long stretches of disappointment have not only driven otherwise rational racetrackers to embrace voodoo with talk of a jinx or a hex, but also seem to have changed the way that they evaluate the prep races on the road to Louisville.
Everyone fears and expects the worst and logic is turned upside down. Fast is bad, slow is good, brilliance is a red flag, and mediocrity is desirable.
ARCADIA, Calif. - In the northwest corner of the Santa Anita Park property, back by the towering stacks of hay bales and piles of training track sand, a crowd of about 150 people gathered late Wednesday morning to cheer the unveiling of a $200 sign.