INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The Japanese culture values humility, serenity, and the willingness to take personal responsibility for the byproducts of one's own actions, be they glorious victories or disappointing defeats.
Tokyo, you're gonna love Doug O'Neill.
WASHINGTON - The most recent meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission was punctuated by shouts, obscenities, tears, angry accusations, and emotional pleas - all over a proposal to close Pimlico's stable area during the winter. Beneath the controversy is a deeper issue - the relationship of trainers to the tracks where they are based.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - As a modest public service, here are a few things that should be kept in mind for the celebration of Veterans Day on Tuesday, Nov. 11, most of it gleaned from the website maintained by the Veterans Administration.
- There are 26.5 million U.S. military veterans in the general population, as of the census taken in 2000.
- There are an estimated 1.4 million personnel currently on active duty in the U.S. military, plus another 154,000 in National Guard and reserve units.
In general, attempts to make racing's biggest events part of multi-day racing "festivals" have just not worked. Pimlico and Belmont have repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to emulate Churchill Downs's success with Kentucky Oaks Day on the afternoon preceding a Triple Crown race. In the mid-1990's, Belmont also tried breaking up its fall Super Saturdays into Pretty Good Saturdays and Sundays, and people still stayed home watching football on Sundays.
Despite those past performances, there may be one event where it might be worth trying again: the Breeders' Cup.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The Oak Tree Racing Association wraps up business this weekend - still flushed and a little dizzy from the Breeders' Cup - by presenting the 14th rendition of the California Cup, a 10-race festival worth $1.3 million that offers a chance for Golden State owners and breeders to pat each other on the back.
TUCSON, Ariz. - For those who knew it in its halcyon days under Gene Mori following World War II, for those who watched it burn to the ground in 1977, and for those who saw it rise again as a temple of glitz under Robert Brennan in 1985, Garden State Park, whose destruction began last week, is a painful reminder of racing truths.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The item in today's paper is brief and to the point. Joe Hirsch, journalist by trade, will write his final column for Daily Racing Form later this month. November was already turning cold and damp. Now this.
The news will be greeted far and wide with a sigh of the inevitable. Some things simply are not made to last. Laffit Pincay was supposed to ride forever. Bill Shoemaker should never say goodbye. Joe Hirsch, racing's clarion voice, could never call it a day.
But he will.
The campaign to get people to call the Breeders' Cup the World Thoroughbred Championships has been a failure for two reasons. The first is that people rarely choose eight new syllables over three familiar ones, especially when three is the magic number for so many other like-minded events, such as the Super Bowl, World Series or Stanley Cup.
ARCADIA, Calif. - There is nothing inherently wrong with running 2-year-olds on the grass. Rumor has it that in Europe it happens all the time.
Even out here in dirt-bound California, where grass horses usually are asked to ride in the back of the bus, 2-year-olds get a chance to add a dimension to his potential with occasional opportunities on turf. The $75,000 Pinjara Stakes, at a mile on Saturday at Santa Anita Park, is one of them.
