TUCSON, Ariz. - If you like the tortured twists and turns of soap opera, you'll love what's happening in racing in Maine.
Trotters and pacers, who have raced there for almost two centuries, are in the middle of the daily convolutions, and - with the clink of coming slot machines as background music - so are some of the biggest guns of gaming.
WASHINGTON - Voting for the 2003 Eclipse Awards has not yet begun, but one of the categories has already stirred impassioned debate. Funny Cide and Empire Maker, arch rivals in the Triple Crown series, will be part of another close race to decide the 3-year-old champion.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jerry Bailey owes his remarkable 2003 season in large part to the success of the horses trained by Bobby Frankel. In very large part. Bailey has won 70 stakes, a record, with 25 of them coming aboard Frankel runners. For those without a calculator handy, that is a robust 35.7 percent.
The latest round of changes to the Grade 1 roster by the American Graded Stakes Committee last week had a little something to please or annoy just about everyone who puts on the sport's most important races. That's a sign that it did at least a few things right.
INGLEWOOD. Calif. - The future book favorite for the 2004 Kentucky Derby has spent the last month in quarantine at the L.A. County fairgrounds. He has been in light training, with a number of his stablemates, while all around him the off-season activities of Fairplex Park have unfolded. They have included drag racing, motor cross, and, more recently, nightly fireworks.
Sounds like the perfect way to prepare for Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - On last Saturday's episode of Animal Planet's "When Horses Go Nuts," filmed at Hollywood Park in conjunction with the Hollywood Turf Cup, the handsome chestnut Labirinto dumped jockey Brice Blanc on his way from the walking ring to the grandstand tunnel, broke through a side gate, cleared out several rows of spectators, and aged his young trainer, Leonard Powell, at least 10 years.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Friday is the day after, and all across America the logy effects of tryptophan - turkey's little chemical surprise - will be starting to wear off. Kitchens will reek of candied yams. Wishbones will be drying on chilly windowsills, and there will be smears of telltale red stain on mom's white table linens where cranberries were served in haste.
WASHINGTON - Even jaded racing fans get excited when they spot a young horse who seems destined to become a star. More than a few people at Laurel Park on Nov. 15 had that sensation as they watched a 2-year-old colt who might be the winner of the 2004 Kentucky Derby.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - About 800 backstretch workers will tuck into a full-course Thanksgiving meal Thursday morning in the Hollywood Park stable cafeteria, courtesy of track management. The rest of us will wolf down the local racing card before traveling over hill and dale to some relative's house for the traditional holiday feast of turkey, pie, and NFL football.
Then there is Richard Mandella. As often as possible - which has been five times in the last 11 years - Mandella prefers to celebrate his Thanksgiving in the shadow of Mount Fuji by running a horse in the Japan Cup.
