– Trainer Bob Baffert said that the Travers is out of the question for Roman Ruler, but that the colt might run on the Travers Day undercard in the King’s Bishop Stakes, which would have the Dwyer winner starting against Lost in the Fog (New York Daily News).
– The reliably cranky Paul Moran bemoans NYRA’s management and calls for the organization’s end. “The prevailing competency vacuum will remain because no experienced racing executive is likely to accept a position with an organization facing certain doom … This is why NYRA, which in better times would have no difficulty attracting the best and the brightest, is being steered by the inept and the clueless and kept afloat by middle management holdovers still too young to retire … It appears that the logical way to save the sport from those currently in charge and avert the decimation of the state’s breeding industry is for Albany to adopt the recommendations made repeatedly over the years.” The most recent recommendations from Friends of New York Racing call for a for-profit entity to manage the state’s racetracks (Newsday).
– Churchill Downs officials told Kentucky state legislators on Wednesday that this spring’s disease outbreaks cost the track $70,000 plus an unknown amount of lost handle (New York Times) … At the same meeting, state veterinarian Dr. Robert Stout said that it was impossible to determine the origin of the strangles cases (Blood-Horse).
Posted by JC in Miscellany on 07/14/2005 @ 11:55 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
Charles Town apprentice Shannon Campbell was paralyzed from the waist down in an accident on Saturday night (Daily Racing Form). It was an accident at another West Virginia track last year that left jockey Gary Birzer paralyzed and sparked the jockeys’ insurance dispute last fall, which resulted in several tracks raising jockeys’ insurance coverage to $1 million. Charles Town, amazingly, wasn’t among that group. Its insurance remains capped at $100,000 $50,000. Campbell’s colleagues will be meeting with Jockeys’ Guild representatives to discuss setting up a fund to cover her medical bills.
Posted by JC in Jockeys on 07/13/2005 @ 9:30 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
– Strange things happen in racing. Consider the story of Joey P., “the offspring of a $25,000 claimer named Close Up out of a mare named Luckey Lipco, who was bought by breeder-owner John Petrini, a retired state cop, for $500. Trainer Frank Costa had been around for a while, but he was the type of hard-luck guy who never seemed to have a good horse and had never won a graded stakes in his 33 years in the business. Jockey Alfredo Clemente? Let’s just say he didn’t exactly remind anybody of Jerry Bailey.” Joey P. is now for 5-for-5 and one race away from meeting Afleet Alex in the Haskell (ESPN).
– Albany Times-Union columnist Matt Graves announces his retirement in a farewell column that looks back at 35 years of sports writing. “Remarkably, I spent much of my career writing about athletes who never uttered a syllable — Ruffian, Affirmed, Funny Cide, Seattle Slew and all the rest.”
– Egg Head, the only three-year-old to seriously challenge the undefeated Lost in the Fog, was euthanized Monday after succumbing to laminitis. “This is devastating,” said trainer Kieran McLaughlin (Daily Racing Form).
Posted by JC in Miscellany on 07/13/2005 @ 9:25 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
