News and notes from around the Thoroughbred racing world, compiled by Thoroughbred Racing Communications, Inc. (TRC) (212.371.5911..)

NEW YEAR INSPIRES THOROUGHBRED NAMES
Since all Thoroughbreds in the Northern Hemisphere share Jan. 1 as their birthday, names with a New Year's theme are pretty common. A recent perusal of The Jockey Club's 'Registered Thoroughbred Names 1995' book proffered a bevy of monikers inspired by the passage of the New Year. Among the many names listed in the book are Auld Lang Syne, Champagne Toast, New Year, Resolution, Countdown, Happy New Year, Times Square, Dick Clarke (sic), Noise Maker, Midnight, Toast, Cheers, Tuxedo, Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, The First Day, Aspirin, Father Time, Tiny Bubbles, Drinksareonme, Designated Driver, Intoxicated, Drunken Fool, and Hangover.

GULFSTREAM HOSTS SALUTE TO JOCKEY JERRY BAILEY ON OPENING DAY
Gulfstream Park, Hallandale, Fla., will present a 'Salute to Jerry Bailey' as part of the track's opening day events Jan. 3. Bailey, who was inducted into racing's Hall of Fame in 1995, will be available to meet with fans during the question and answer session in the North Paddock beginning at 11:15 a.m. All patrons attending opening day ceremonies will receive a free autographed commemorative photograph of Bailey.

Bailey, who is enjoying the best year of his 22-year-career, is the regular rider of probable Horse of the Year Cigar. Recently Bailey broke the record for single-year earnings when he guided his mounts to more than $16 million in purses.

DELAWARE PARK DEBUTS SLOTS
Delaware Park, in Wilmington, Del., has converted 70,000 square feet of its grandstand into a slots and simulcasting parlor, which will open Friday, Dec. 29. A total of 715 slot machines offering a wide array of games will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Sunday.

BLOOD-HORSE MAGAZINE SELECTS TOP STORIES OF 1995
The top story in Thoroughbred racing this year was Cigar, according to the editors, writers and editorial staff of 'The Blood-Horse' magazine. Allen Paulsen's superstar Cigar, who is expected to be selected as Horse of the Year, was the overwhelming favorite story featured in the weekly Thoroughbred industry magazine. Rounding out the top nine places are: the bloodstock market's resurgence; the turmoil within the Thoroughbred Racing Associations; troubles in Texas, chronicling the financial problems plaguing the state's Class I racetracks; changes in New York allowing the administration on Bute and Lasix as race-day medications; the way the Thoroughbred industry embraced the internet; the impact of simulcast wagering; how racing commissions have recognized extenuating circumstances in drug positives because of the sophistication of drug testing procedures and have supported allowable threshold levels of some therapeutic medications; owners' rights; and the health threat posed by equine protozoal myeloenc phalitis (EMP).

NO FULL-CARD SIMULCASTING AT GULFSTREAM PARK
The Florida Division of Parimutuel Wagering has not acted to grant Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla., permission to conduct full-card simulcasting when its meeting opens Jan. 3. Gulfstream requested permission for the simulcasts Aug. 11 but was turned down without a hearing. On Dec. 13, the First District Court ruled that the Division must show cause why Gulfstream should not receive a hearing. The Division's response was that Gulfstream's request would be acted on after a Jan. 17 fact-finding hearing. With the many administrative procedures that must take place after an approval, Gulfstream officials doubt that full-card simulcasting will be a reality during their three-month meeting. The track will take two simulcast races per day if its full-card simulcasting efforts fail.

TURFWAY PARK WAGERING SOARS
Due primarily to the opening of 'The Race Book at Turfway Park,' a simulcasting facility at the Florence, Ky., track, total wagering has increased 39.6 percent over last year. The increase has enabled Turfway Park to increase its purse levels and attract better quality horses. 'We are offering an attractive betting product not only for our fans at the track and throughout Kentucky but also for patrons at full-card simulcast locations throughout the country,' said Mark Simendinger, Turfway's president.

EUROPEAN JOCKEY RECORD SET
German jockey Peter Schiergen broke Sir Gordon Richards' European record for victories in a year when he rode his 270th winner Dec. 25 at Dortmund. Richards set the mark in 1947.

RACING ON THE AIR

Dec. 30 'Racehorse Digest' 1:30-2:00 a.m., ESPN
Dec. 30 'Racehorse Digest' 6:00-6:30 a.m., ESPN
Jan. 3 'Racehorse Digest' 3:30-4:00 p.m., ESPN

RACING TO HISTORY
Dec. 28, 1946: Hall of Fame jockey Jorge Velasquez was born in Chepo, Panama.

Dec. 29, 1946: Hall of Fame jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. was born in Panama City, Panama.

Dec. 31, 1966: Ogden Phipps' Buckpasser, trained by Eddie Neloy, won the 13th consecutive race of his three-year-old season after taking the Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita Park. He was voted Horse of the Year and also took top three-year-old and handicap horse honors for 1966.

Dec. 31, 1982: After a year-long battle for leading rider honors, Pat Day edged Angel Cordero Jr. by two races, which he won after chartering a plane to fly to Vinton, La., where he rode Dana's Woof Woof and Miltons Magic to victory during the evening program at Delta Downs. Day won the title - his first - with 399 wins to Cordero's 397.

Dec. 31, 1989: Jockey Kent Desormeaux set the world record for most number of wins in a single season, 598, when he rode two-year-old East Royalty, trained by Phil Thomas Jr., to victory in the tenth race, the Inner Harbor Stakes, at Laurel Racecourse. He surpassed the old record, set by Chris McCarron, by 52.

Dec. 31, 1993: Jockey Mike Smith set the record for most number of stakes victories in a single year, 62, with a win aboard Bit of Puddin in the Bertram F. Bongard Stakes at Aqueduct.

Jan. 1, 1942: Racing in California was officially canceled. On December 16, the West Coast military authorities had requested that Santa Anita Park postpone its meeting indefinitely due to war conditions.

Jan. 1, 1975: Secretariat was represented by his first Thoroughbred foal, a filly named Miss Secretariat, born in Kentucky to the mare My Card.

Jan. 2, 1945: As World War II approached its climactic finish, racing throughout the U.S. was banned indefinitely at the request of James F. Byrnes, War Mobilization Director. While Thoroughbreds could not be transported in the U.S. for racing purposes, the Office of Defense Transportation subsequently approved the shipment of racehorses to tracks that were more than 300 miles beyond U.S. borders. The ban was not lifted until May, causing the rescheduling of the Triple Crown races.

Jan. 4, 1946: Canadian-born jockey George Woolf, known as 'The Iceman' for his coolness in the saddle, died after falling head first from his mount, Please Me, during a race at Santa Anita Park the previous day. He was 35. During his career (1928-1946) Woolf had 3, 784 mounts, 721 wins, 589 seconds and 468 thirds, with earnings of $2, 856,125. Since 1950, Santa Anita Park has annually presented the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award to a rider who demonstrates high standards of personal and professional conduct, on and off the racetrack.

Jan. 5, 1980: Spectacular Bid began his undefeated four-year-old season, winning the Malibu Stakes by five lengths at Santa Anita. The grey colt finished his 1980 campaign a perfect nine-for-nine.

WEEKEND STAKES

SATURDAY
Bay Meadows Lassie Stakes, 2yo fillies, $75,000, 1 Mile, Bay Meadows
Congressional Handicap, 3&up, $75,000, 1 1-4 Miles, Laurel
Gallant Fox Handicap, 3&up, $100,000, 1 5-8 Miles, Grade III, Aqueduct
Holiday Cheer Stakes, 3&up, $75,000, 6 1-2 Furlongs, Turfway
La Brea Stakes, 3yo fillies, $125,000, 7 Furlongs, Grade II, Santa Anita
Tropical Park Handicap, 3&up, $100,000, 1 1-8 Miles Turf, Grade III, Calder

SUNDAY
California Breeders' Champion Stakes, 2yo fillies, $100,000, 7 Furlongs, Santa Anita

The Running Horse (http://www.webcom.com/~alauck/)