ARCADIA, Calif. - Laffit Pincay was standing at his cubicle in the Santa Anita jockeys' room, dressed in street clothes, with his arms extended and wiggling his toes. He was describing the work of a magician he had seen on a recent holiday in Las Vegas.
"She got in a box and stood like this," Pincay explained. "Then she got somebody from the audience to touch her feet. Then they took just the top half of her here, and put her over there. Unbelievable, man. I don't know how she did it."
MIAMI - The passing of the torch.
At one time, the leading riders were Jerry Bailey and Jacinto Vasquez, members of racing's Hall of Fame. They were followed here in south Florida by Alex Solis and Jorge Chavez, now among the nation's top jockeys. Eibar Coa and Javier Castellano had their day before heading north to sustained success.
Now it's Cornelio Velasquez's turn to bask in the glow of the spotlight before moving his act to more remunerative sites.
ARCADIA, Calif. - For 280 serious observers of the Thoroughbred racing scene, the holidays have been a terrible distraction. Sitting there on the desk, amid the piles of Visa receipts and Christmas cards returned to sender, a steamy package from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association has been screaming out for attention.
It is the official ballot for the election of 2001 Eclipse Award winners, and now it can be confronted. Good luck.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Ask anyone committed to the racing life and they will tell you this without pause - there are few things better than winning a race on Santa Anita's opening day.
The crowd is always large, upward of 40,000 even in recent years, and the fans are hungry for sport. Most of them have turned a blind eye to the game since the Breeders' Cup, and now they are back, on the day after Christmas, clutching their free Santa Anita calendars, cholesterol soaring, still giddy from holiday cheer.
WASHINGTON - For the first time in months, Ramon Dominguez can almost relax.
The Maryland-based jockey has been working obsessively, often riding seven days a week, sometimes day and night. He has climbed aboard more horses in 2001 than any other jockey in the world, with one goal in mind: to be America's top race-winning rider.
He has been battling Russell Baze, the northern Californian rider who has won the title six times. By winning a race at Laurel Park Wednesday, Dominguez took a
TUCSON, Ariz. - Erythropoietin - EPO - has arrived in English horse racing, or at least in the coverage of racing in the English press, which is having a holiday ball with it. Unfortunately for racing, when English journalistic bulldogs get hold of a juicy story, they do not let it shake loose.
The story started with a well-known trainer, Charlie Mann, who said he is fed up with racing uphill against guys racing downhill using EPO. He said horses were running on it "every day."
WASHINGTON - Competition between Thoroughbred and harness tracks has existed in Maryland for decades and it used to be fairly amiable. Each sport had its own niche and audience.
Now the relationship between the two breeds has turned poisonous, paralyzing the development of offtrack betting, exasperating regulators and legislators. While industry insiders have debated the points of contention endlessly, most fans don't know or care much about the 80-20 revenue-sharing deal or the so-called 6:15 rule. Here is the background:
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Stay calm. We'll get through this together. Pretty soon it will all be over, and we will laugh at our fears and trepidations. But yes, it is very scary, because the question hangs in the air, loaded with dread: How will the game survive . . . eight straight days without racing?
NEW YORK - You don't have to walk too far at a racetrack to hear one or more of the following opinions:
"Medications are obviously being used that are undetectable."
"When a trainer suddenly raises his winning percentage above 30 percent for an extended period of time, something is wrong. It should be called to attention and close security and testing done for all the medications."
"Trainers and owners who have enough power and money can use any kind of medication they want."
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Regardless of the outcome of Saturday's $100,000 Gravesend Handicap at six furlongs, Peeping Tom will be the big winner. Claimed last year at 3 for $40,000, he has developed into a stakes winner of almost $750,000 and has built a small stable and breeding operation for owner Louis Milazzo.
