JC / Railbird

Miscellany Archive

Headlines: Monday Action

– Ghostzapper worked six furlongs in 1:13.24 at Belmont Monday. The 2004 Horse of the Year will make his 2005 debut next Monday in the Metropolitan Handicap. (DRF)
– Trainer Tim Ritchey paid $210,000 for a Dixieland Band colt at the Fasig-Tipton Midatlantic sale on Monday. Ritchey bought the colt for Cash Is King, the stable that owns Afleet Alex and bought him at the same sale a year ago for $75,000 (TT) … The Cash Is King crew is on a roll. The day after winning the Preakness with Afleet Alex, the owners were back in the winner’s circle twice at Delaware with the fillys Racing Luck and Kelsey’s treasure. (BH)
– NYRA fired 59 mutuel clerks and suspended 30 others for participating in an “illegal job action,” according to senior vice president Bill Nader. New York mutuel clerks have been without a contract since 2003. (NYDN)
– Send links, comments to railbird at jessicachapel dot com

Posted in Miscellany on May 24, 2005

Headlines: Return of the Rock

– Rock Hard Ten breezed three furlongs this weekend at Santa Anita. It was the handsome colt’s first workout since he suffered a minor setback early in the spring. Trainer Richard Mandella says he expects Rock Hard Ten to start in the July 24 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar. (DRF)
– Bill Finley profiles Chantal Sutherland. “I plan to put in the time here, and I want to get more mounts and better mounts … To me, that’s the American dream.” (NYT)
– A legislative hearing on the future of New York racing was same-old, same-old until racing law expert Bennett Liebman testified. “This is a unique opportunity to change the racing law,” he told lawmakers. (TT)

Posted in Miscellany on May 18, 2005

Headlines: All Maryland

– Funny Cide will make his 2005 debut this Friday in the Pimlico Special. He’ll be facing the likes of Eddington, Offlee Wild, and Pollard’s Vision. Friday’s card at Pimlico, the day before the Preakness, features five stakes races, including the Pimlico Distaff and the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. Ashado is entered in the former; Runway Model in the latter. Maddalena will start in the six-furlong Miss Preakness Stakes. (DRF)
– Maryland racing relies on Preakness. “Literally, it’s the one day of the year that we make money,” said Jim Gagliano, executive vice president of Maryland operations for Magna, which is threatening to sell the Preakness to another track or to move it another Magna-owned unless slots are brought to the state (BH) … “But the bullying looks a little empty when you examine the obvious,” writes Michael Olesker. If the Preakness is the one day Pimlico makes money, why would Magna take its most profitable race away from a track it paid millions for? Why wouldn’t they? asks John Eisenberg. “Slots opponents who think the Preakness won’t move should get their heads out of the sand and realize that anything is possible in sports today, that history and tradition are worth as much as a torn mutuel ticket and that those warning sirens going off are real.” (Sun)

Posted in Miscellany on May 17, 2005