– Maddy’s Lion wins inaugural Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct. (NYP)
– Jockey Kieren Fallon relaxes in Florida. “America … has clearly given him a fresh outlook on the business of riding.” (Guar.)
– Audiotape of a Jockeys’ Guild meeting reveals that the jockeys who went on strike at Churchill Downs last fall were coached by Guild lawyers, and that the incident in which rider Shane Sellers was escorted from the track may have been orchestrated by the organization. (SBJ)
– “Las Vegas will be the scene of the best horseplayers in the world,” with back-to-back handicapping tournaments this week. (Las Vegas Sun)
– Send links, comments to railbird at jessicachapel dot com
Posted by JC in Miscellany on 01/18/2005 @ 5:30 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
For his five-year-old campaign. The gelding is wintering at Gulfstream Park and will return to the track later this spring. “The tentative plan is to have Funny Cide make his first start on March 5 in the Grade II, $300,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap…. If he doesn’t make it into the starting gate for that one, Funny Cide may go in the Grade III, $100,000 Skip Away Handicap on April 2 at a mile and an eighth.” I love the Sackatoga gang for continuing to run this fabulous horse — although, I’m sure it’s not that tough a decision for them, since there’s no pressure to breed. If only more owners of stars had similar freedom. (Saratogian)
Posted by JC in Horses on 01/17/2005 @ 6:20 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
– Remembering the greatest race-fixer of all. Anthony “Fat Tony” Ciulla “fixed races at Suffolk Downs, the old Garden State racetrack, and a graveyard of now-dead tracks like Narragansett, Hialeah, and Green Mountain…. Ciulla, who could be as charming as he was intimidating, admitted to fixing hundreds of races by paying off jockeys, usually for between $3,000 and $6,000 a race, and sometimes as much as $10,000.” (NYS)
– Editorial calls for putting NYRA under new management. “It’s time for the state to muck out NYRA’s stables and put the franchise out for competitive bid” (NYDN) … NYRA responds. (TT)
– Sweet Catomine wins Santa Ysabel Stakes. “The 1-10 favorite, [she] toyed with her five rivals, prevailing by 2 1/2 lengths over 9-2 second choice Pussycat Doll.” (LAT)
– Send links, comments to railbird at jessicachapel dot com
Posted by JC in Miscellany on 01/17/2005 @ 6:10 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
