Massachusetts House speaker Sal DiMasi said yesterday that lawmakers would concentrate on health care and other issues in the waning days of the fall legislative session and were not likely to take up the slots bill that was passed by the Senate 26-9 in October. ”I can’t say for sure that I’m going to say, ‘No,’ for this year, but it doesn’t look likely — it looks highly unlikely,” DiMasi told the Boston Globe.
The bill would have allowed 2,000 slot machines to be installed at each of the state’s four racetracks. As written now, the slots measure is part of a simulcasting bill that must be passed this year for the tracks to remain open. There’s no mention in the article of that complication, but I would bet that’s because the plan is to uncouple the two once it becomes clear slots are really, truly dead this year and pass the uncontroversial simulcasting portion in the session’s final hours.
Or not: Track owners say they’re preparing to hand out pink slips, just in case a simulcasting-only bill isn’t passed.
Posted by JC in State Issues on 11/07/2005 @ 7:30 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
The latest news on Afleet Alex is hardly surprising: Trainer Tim Ritchey was still talking about the Cigar Mile last week, but Cash Is King managing partner Chuck Zacney all but said Alex was done for the year. This weekend came the announcement that x-rays showed the colt’s hairline fracture isn’t completely healed and that he won’t run again until 2006, when he may start in the Sunshine Millions Classic at Santa Anita in January or the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream in February.
Despite Alex’s long absence from the races, Ritchey believes the dual classic winner should be named Horse of the Year. “I’d like to congratulate (Breeders’ Cup Classic winner) Saint Liam and his connections, but I think my horse should be Horse of the Year. He had the most dominating races of the year; I would love to see it.” At least one voter agrees.
Posted by JC in Horses on 11/06/2005 @ 6:10 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
At Churchill Downs, Catcominacha won the Iroquois Stakes, earning himself a spot in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes on November 26. In the way of anyone lucky enough to own a promising two-year-old, owner Thomas McCann can’t help thinking about the Kentucky Derby in the wake of his improving colt’s win. “This horse has taken us places we’ve never dreamed of, places we’ve never been before,” McCann said. “Somebody said something about doing this again here the first Saturday in May. That sounds wonderful.”
Favorite Flanders Fields, an impressive maiden winner at Belmont in September, was caught wide from the start and finished fifth.
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Two-year-olds were the highlight of the card at Suffolk Downs as well, with a field of 11 assembled for the Amelia Peabody Stakes. Longshot Auntie Millie won, finally breaking her maiden in her eighth start. The filly had finished second to favorite Flirt for Fame in her last race. Flirt for Fame finished fourth.
Posted by JC in Horses on 11/05/2005 @ 9:00 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
