October 24, 2002
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News and notes from around the Thoroughbred racing world, compiled 
WAR EMBLEM LEADS INTERNATIONAL CAST IN SATURDAY�S BREEDERS' CUP Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner War Emblem and champion miler Rock of Gibraltar (IRE) lead the imposing list of 92 horses from North America and Europe set to clash in Saturday's 19th Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Arlington Park in Chicago (NBC, 1:00-6:00 p.m. ET). War Emblem faces the toughest test of his career as a lukewarm favorite in a wide-open field of 12 3-year-olds and up set to go to the post for the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic, the climax of the eight races for all divisions racing for total purses of $13,980,000. In the race prior to the Classic, English and Irish Derby winner High Chaparral (IRE) is the 8-to-5 morning line favorite in a field of eight 3-year-olds and up drawn for the $2,420,000 million John Deere Breeders' Cup Turf at 1 � miles. The son of Sadler's Wells is trained by Aidan O'Brien, who has brought a powerful Coolmore team of eight runners from Ireland that also includes Rock of Gibraltar, the solid favorite in the $1 million NetJets Breeders' Cup Mile earlier on the card. Leading off the World Thoroughbred Championships races will be the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles. Azeri is the 6-to-5 morning-line favorite to win for the 10th time in 11 career starts for trainer Laura de Seroux. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas leads virtually every statistical category in Breeders' Cup history and sends out 4-year-old Orientate as the 5-to-2 morning line favorite in a field of 13 3-year-olds and up entered in the $1,140,000 NAPA Breeders' Cup Sprint at six furlongs. Trainer Bobby Frankel sends out 4-year-old filly Banks Hill (GB) as the 3-to-1 second choice in the $1,280,000 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf at 1 � miles on turf, a race she won at Belmont Park last year and was voted an Eclipse champion. A very wide-open, full field of 14 2-year-old males will go in the $1,070,000 Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile at 1 1/8 miles, while another heavy favorite on the program line will be Storm Flag Flying at even-money as the undefeated daughter of Storm Cat breaks from post 4 in a field of 11 entered for the $1 million Long John Silver's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at 1 1/8 miles. BAFFERT/LUKAS RIVALRY WILL EXTEND TO GRIDIRON THIS WEEKEND On Saturday, their horses will do battle in the Breeders� Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, but tomorrow trainers Bob Baffert and D. Wayne Lukas will square off in a different forum. They will make picks for this weekend�s National Football League games in the sports section of Friday�s USA Today. The feature will not just include selections, but also the rationale for each pick. The reasoning offered up, however, will occasionally be less than scientific. "My father�s name is Bill," wrote Baffert to explain why the Buffalo Bills would beat the Detroit Lions. As to why he predicted that the Seattle Seahawks will top the Dallas Cowboys: "A blatant suck up move on my part in an attempt to lure team owner Paul Allen as a client." TOMORROW�S CUP GALA TO BENEFIT MANY The Breeders' Cup Gala, held on the eve of the $13 million Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill., will take place tomorrow night at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Chicago. Gala proceeds benefit The Jockey Club Foundation, Ronald McDonald House Charities and NTRA Charities. Since 1985, The Jockey Club Foundation has provided more than $8 million in aid to some 1,000 members of the horseracing community who have suffered economic distress. With 171 local chapters in 44 countries, Ronald McDonald House Charities has awarded $340 million in grants to improve the lives of children and supports mobile care units bringing medical and dental services directly to under-served children who need it most. NTRA Charities, a subsidiary of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, was founded in 1999 to raise awareness of the Thoroughbred industry and its charitable activities through outreach programs and Public Service Announcements airing on NTRA-produced programming. Last year, the organization raised nearly $5 million for families of those lost on September 11. Honorary co-chairs for the event are Governor and Mrs. George H. Ryan, Mayor and Mrs. Richard M. Daley and Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Duchossois. OHIO PUBLICIST WILL BE ALL WET IF HARLAN'S HOLIDAY WINS CLASSIC River Downs' racetrack publicity director John Engelhardt may have to take a literal "jump in the lake" if Harlan's Holiday wins the $4,000,000 Breeders Cup Classic during the World Thoroughbred Championships on Saturday. "I jokingly said one day about a year ago that I'd jump into the infield lake if a Cradle winner ever won the Breeders' Cup Classic," stated Engelhardt, who will be at the track Saturday in case he has to make good on his promise. "My assistant, Darlene Guenther, wrote the statement down and had me sign it and it's been hanging on her wall ever since. How did I know the horse would get so good - or the water so cold!" Ohio-bred Harlan's Holiday, who won the 2001 edition of the Miller Genuine Draft Cradle Stakes at River Downs, developed into one of the country's top 3-year-olds this season. He has now earned $1,926,564 including victories in the Florida Derby, Blue Grass Stakes and Pennsylvania Derby. "Talk about mixed emotions," sighed Engelhardt. "I want to see him win, but I'm not so crazy about taking a swim in 50 degree temperatures. Certainly a victory will give me the chills - some I'll never forget." BROUN ESSAYS MAKING A CLASSIC COMEBACK The work of the late Heywood Hale Broun, a colorful voice of the Triple Crown, is coming back to television in a new series called Woodie's World on ESPN Classic, debuting on Thursday, Oct 31 at 7:00 p.m. (ET). The half-hour program, which will appear for 13 consecutive weeks in the same time slot, is executive produced by four-time Eclipse Award winner Bud Lamoreaux. The essays are about the America of the 1960s and 70s and were seen every Saturday night for a decade on the CBS Evening News. They have not been rebroadcast since. Thoroughbred racing, in this season of the series, will be represented by pieces on Secretariat, Manny Ycaza, Bill Veeck at Suffolk Downs and Hobby Horse Hall in Nassau.
October 24 Wire to Wire, 2:00-2:30 p.m., ESPN2
Oct. 24, 1877: Congress adjourned to see a race between Parole, Ten Broek and Tom Ochiltree, which was held at Pimlico. Oct. 24, 1953: Tom Fool won the Pimlico Special Stakes by eight lengths, capping a perfect four-year-old campaign with 10 stakes wins in as many starts. The Special was his fourth consecutive race run as a non-betting exhibition. Tom Fool was voted Horse of the Year for 1953, acing out Native Dancer, who lost only one of his 10 stakes races that year, the Kentucky Derby. Oct. 25, 1870: Pimlico, the nation�s second-oldest Thoroughbred racetrack, began its inaugural meet. Oct. 25, 1947: After winning the Gallant Fox Handicap at Jamaica, a former $1,500 claimer, Stymie, became the world�s leading money-winning Thoroughbred, with earnings of $816,060. Stymie raced two additional years and retired in 1949, at age eight, with lifetime winnings of $918,485. Oct. 26, 1949: Bill Shoemaker rode to his first stakes victory, the George Marshall Claiming Handicap at Bay Meadows, aboard a five-year-old horse named Al. Oct. 26, 1990: Jockey Julie Krone rode her 2,000th career winner, aboard John Forbes-trained Rainbow Quartz, at The Meadowlands. Oct. 26, 1996: The Breeders� Cup was held outside the U.S. for the first time, at Woodbine Racecourse in Toronto, Canada. At Woodbine, Jenine Sahadi became the first female trainer to saddle a Breeders� Cup winner when she sent Lit de Justice to victory in the Breeders� Cup Sprint. Oct. 27, 1870: Preakness won the Dinner Stakes at the newly opened Pimlico Racecourse. In 1873, the first Preakness Stakes, a race was named in his honor, was held at Pimlico. Oct. 27, 1990: Bayakoa (ARG) became the second horse to win two consecutive Breeders� Cup Championship races. Both of her victories came in the Breeders� Cup Distaff. Oct. 27, 2001: Tiznow, 2000 Breeders� Cup Classic champion and Horse of the Year, won the $4 million Breeders� Cup Classic for a second straight year, outdueling European sensation Sakhee in the stretch at the Breeders� Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Belmont Park. Total wagering on the 10-race program was $104,145,186, the second highest Breeders� Cup total in history, just behind the 2000 total of $108,603,040. Oct. 27, 2001: Participants in the Breeders� Cup World Thoroughbred Championships donated more than $2.7 million from their purse earnings to the NTRA Charities - New York Heroes Fund, established to benefit the children and spouses of the firefighters, police officers, emergency workers and other victims who perished in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Sheikh Mohammed�s Dubai-based Godolphin stable, which pledged 100 percent of its Breeders� Cup earnings to the Heroes Fund, donated approximately $2.5 million on the day, thanks in part to wins by two of his horses, Fantastic Light and Tempera. Oct. 27, 2001, Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel saw his 0-for-38 streak in Breeders' Cup races come to an end when Squirtle Squirt won the Penske Auto Centers Breeders' Cup Sprint. Oct. 28, 1972: Secretariat won the Laurel Futurity by eight lengths, sent off at odds of 1-10, at Laurel. Oct. 28, 1973: With jockey Eddie Maple substituting for Ron Turcotte, who was sidelined by a suspension, Secretariat concluded his racing career with a 6 1-2-length victory in the Canadian International Championship Stakes at Woodbine Racecourse. It was his second victory in as many tries on the turf. Oct. 28, 1983: Jacinto Vasquez had his 4,000th career winner, aboard Sunshine O�My Life, at Aqueduct. Oct. 28, 2000: Laffit Pincay Jr., the world�s winningest rider, gained his 9,000th career victory aboard Chichim in the $150,000 California Cup Distaff at Santa Anita Park. Oct. 29, 1948: Calumet Farm�s three-year-old Citation entered the Pimlico Invitational Special Stakes unopposed and won in a walkover, earning $10,000 for galloping the 1 3-16 mile course in 1:59 4-5. Another great Calumet runner, Whirlaway, also won the Special in a walkover in 1942. Oct. 29, 1955: Charlie Whittingham and Bill Shoemaker scored their first stakes victory as a trainer-rider team with Mister Gus in the William P. Kyne Handicap at Bay Meadows. Oct. 29, 1998: Triple Crown winner and 1970s icon Secretariat was selected as one of 15 subjects to be honored with a commemorative postal stamp in 1999. Oct. 30, 1937: Sir Barton, the first American Triple Crown winner, died at age 21. After an undistinguished career as a sire, Sir Barton was sent to the U.S. Army�s Remount Division in Nebraska, and then to a ranch in Wyoming, where he remained until his death. Oct. 30, 1988: After the blinkers on his mount, Roaring River, worked loose, jockey Francisco Torres grabbed them and placed them between his teeth to keep his hands free for riding. Roaring River won the race, at Hawthorne, by three lengths. Oct. 31, 1944: The saddle cloth numbers of the first five race winners at Jamaica corresponded to the number of the race in which each horse started. Oct. 31, 1964: Seven-year-old Kelso won his fifth consecutive Jockey Club Gold Cup, a record. In each of those races, Kelso was the odds-on favorite. Oct. 31, 1987: Jockey Chris Antley became the first rider to win nine races in a single day. He rode four winners from six mounts at Aqueduct and five winners from eight tries during The Meadowlands� evening program. Nov. 1, 1944: Racing returned to Hollywood Park after a three-year hiatus, which followed the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nov. 1, 1938: Before a crowd of 40,000 spectators, Seabiscuit, under jockey George Woolf, defeated odds-on favorite War Admiral in the Pimlico Special, run as a winner-take-all match race with a purse of $15,000. Nov. 1, 1947: Man o� War died at Faraway Farm, Lexington, Ky. He lay in state for three days before being ceremoniously buried on Nov. 4. Nov. 2, 1968: John Nerud-trained Dr. Fager, carrying 139 pounds, won the last race of his career, the seven-furlong Vosburgh Handicap at Aqueduct, by six lengths. Dr. Fager was subsequently named champion handicap horse, champion sprinter, turf champion and Horse of the Year. Nov. 2, 1985: Trainer D. Wayne Lukas won his first Breeders� Cup race, the Juvenile Fillies, with Twilight Ridge, whose entrymates Family Style and Arewehavingfunyet finished second and eighth, respectively. Nov. 2, 1991: Dance Smartly won the Breeders� Cup Distaff and passed Lady�s Secret as racing�s then all-time leading female Thoroughbred money-earner, with $3,083,456. Nov. 2, 1991: The Breeders� Cup Pick 7, a wager linking the seven Breeders� Cup races, was inaugurated. Wagering on the Pick 7 alone, excluding wagers made on the individual Breeders� Cup races, was $8,526,985. Nov. 2, 2001: The National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Breeders� Cup Limited announced that the Oct. 27 Breeders� Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, held at Belmont Park, raised approximately $2.5 million for the NTRA Charities � New York Heroes Fund. In total, more than $5 million was been raised by the international horseracing community for the Heroes Fund, created to aid the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Total contributions by the horseracing community to all Sept. 11-related funds exceeded $10 million. Nov. 3, 1923: Tanforan, in suburban San Francisco, opened for a 25-day, non-betting meet. Nov. 4, 1927: Bateau was disqualified from her third-place finish in the Pimlico Futurity after her jockey, Earl Sande, used the filly to ram the future Kentucky Derby winner, Reigh Count, into the rail. Sande subsequently was suspended for his action. Nov. 4, 1998: Michael Rowland became the 88th rider in North America to reach 3,000 career wins when he piloted Bells Gladiator to victory at Thistledown. Nov. 4, 2000: Total wagering on the 10-race Breeders� Cup Day program at Churchill Downs was a record $108,598,136. Nov. 5, 1988: Miesque became the first horse to win two consecutive Breeders� Cup Championship races when she won the Breeders� Cup Mile at Churchill Downs. Nov. 5, 1988: Julie Krone became the first female jockey to compete in the Breeders� Cup when she rode Darby Shuffle to a second-place finish in the Juvenile Fillies race. Nov. 5, 1988: Ogden Phipps� four-year-old filly Personal Ensign concluded her racing career with a 13-for-13 lifetime record when she edged Winning Colors by a nose to win the Breeders� Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs. She was the first American racehorse to retire undefeated in major competition since Colin in 1908. Nov. 6, 1946: Three fillies from Argentina arrived at Newark Airport, having made a journey of 8,250 miles, the then-longest flight ever for horses. Nov. 6, 1973: Secretariat was paraded before 33,000 fans at Aqueduct, as his final appearance at a racetrack before retirement to stud at Claiborne Farm. Nov. 6, 1993: The Breeders� Cup was simulcast to England for wagering purposes for the first time. Nov. 6, 1993: Lure became the fourth horse to win consecutive Breeders� Cup events when he won the Breeders� Cup Mile. The three other runners with consecutive victories were Miesque, Bayakoa (ARG) and Morley Street (IRE), the latter a two-time winner in the steeplechase division.
Green River Stakes, 2yo fillies, $100,000, 1 1-16M (T), Keeneland
Hopemont Stakes, 2yo, $100,000, 1 1-16M (T), Keeneland
Breeders' Cup Classic, 3&up;, $4,000,000, Grade I, 1 1-4M, Arlington Park
Sky Classic Stakes, 3&up;, $250,000, 1 3-8M (T), Woodbine
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