JC / Railbird - Thoroughbred racing news and notes

– The fantasy of being a racehorse owner quickly turns to hard reality for “Dream Derby” contestants. (WP)
– Mr. Light’s world record of 1:31:41 for a mile on the turf has been verified, beating the previous record of 1:31:63 set by Elusive Quality at Belmont Park in 1998. (TT)
– The Jockeys’ Guild faces “the possibility of losing a significant portion its annual revenue,” after TRA and California racing officials said that the Guild had failed to provide them with adequate information about its finances. (DRF)
– The California Horse Racing Board admits to making “a crucial error in the wording” of jockey Pat Valenzuela’s suspension. (LAT)
– Churchill’s 2005 stakes will be worth a record $10 million. (CJ)
– Racing columnist Larry Stumes retires, revisits Greg Gilchrist, subject of his first feature, for his last column. (SFC)
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I had heard that the Sports Museum of New England opened a Thoroughbred racing exhibit last month, but I didn’t hurry over to see it because I feared it would be nothing more than a small glass case with a tiny collection of memorabilia dominated by the photo of Seabiscuit winning the 1937 Massachusetts Handicap that appeared on Suffolk’s program cover all last year. Turns out I was right about the photo’s presence, but wrong about the depth of the display. (Lowell Sun)

Legendary British racing pundit John McCririck is one of eight cast members on the new season of the reality series “Big Brother.” Locked up in a house with former actress/model Brigitte Nielsen, feminist Germaine Greer, and a gaggle of minor celebrities, the “self-confessed sexist” has wasted no time offending his housemates. (ThisIsLondon)