ARCADIA, Calif. - Leif Dickinson walked the full circuit of the Santa Anita grass course on Wednesday afternoon and tried to remember the last time he'd seen so much water. He couldn't.
"It was raining so hard, with so much coming down so fast, there was actually standing water over the whole thing," he said the next afternoon. "We got four inches of rain."
ARCADIA, Calif. - Among the things that have happened in Johnny Longden's lifetime are the following:
Women's suffrage.
Television.
Widespread use of indoor plumbing.
The sinking of the Titanic.
Especially that last one. Longden was 5 when his mother and his three sisters left their home in Wakefield, England, to join the rest of the family in Canada. There were delays along the way, though, and their train to Liverpool arrived too late to catch the big ship making its maiden voyage to North America. Lucky them.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Growing up in Artemus, Ky. (pop. 500), Ken Ramsey heard much about Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby. When he was 6, he accompanied an aunt to Louisville and insisted on seeing the track. They taxied to the main gate on Central Avenue, where they peeked between the bars and caught a glimpse of the twin spires, and Ramsey knew he would be back some day.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Even before the Case of the Missing Leg, the racing operation of owner Mike Gill was a prime topic conversation at Gulfstream Park. But now bettors and rival horsemen are practically obsessed by the subject: Who is this man?
TUCSON, Ariz. - There is no Eclipse award for persistence, which is probably a good thing. If one more award were wedged between the 7 p.m. salad and appetizer and the 10 p.m. entree at the Eclipse dinner, the glittering assemblage might rise en masse in a hunger rebellion. One famished guest once used his cell phone to order five pizzas from Dominos while waiting for dinner as the ceremony droned on, and was promptly offered a profit for slices from an adjoining hungry table.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Don't mess with Texas. I think that's what the Prez said. But how could he have known about the showdown at Santa Anita Park last Saturday? That's when Sightseek did everything but sprout wings near the end of the La Canada Stakes, reaching hard for all her considerable worth, and still could not handle Got Koko, the pride of Austin County.
"I knew it would be a duel in the sun," said down-home poet Bruce Headley, who trains Got Koko for his wife, Aase, and partner Paul Leung.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Well worth the trip.
Jerry Bailey flew to California last weekend for important engagements but made it a point to return here and ride Allamerican Bertie in Saturday's $100,000 Sabin Handicap for fillies and mares. On his way back to California Sunday morning he had time to reflect on an outstanding performance and the filly's bright prospects as one of the leaders in her division.
NEW YORK - The New York State Racing and Wagering Board was forced to convene an emergency meeting last Tuesday to implement obscure legislation passed last year that is suddenly taking effect Feb. 16: a program under which state tracks and OTB's must bar from their premises self-registered "problem gamblers."
ARCADIA, Calif. - In a comfortable corner of the Sun Lakes retirement community, some 90 miles east of Los Angeles in the windswept town of Banning, the legendary life of John Eric Longden is quietly drawing to a close.
There is no procession of visitors, no hovering media, no wailing in the night from anguished family. At the age of 95, Longden is in the process of slowly letting go, as peacefully as the human body will allow, with his wife, Kathy, by his side and hospice care to help guide the way.