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

RACING CHANNEL EXPECTED BY LATE 1998

Nine racetracks have signed contracts or letters of intent with ODS Entertainment to become part of the proposed Television Games Network (TVG), a national entertainment and wagering network featuring horse racing, expected to begin broadcasting by late 1998.

Churchill Downs, Gulfstream Park, Hollywood Park, Laurel Park, Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie, Pimlico Racecourse, Santa Anita Park and Turfway Park have committed the bulk of their races exclusively to ODS over the next five years. Arlington International, which will not race in 1998, was also committed to the channel.

"It is important to embrace advances in technology, communications and television," said Corey Johnsen, Vice president and General Manager of Lone Star Park. "I believe the ODS concept not only embraces those things but takes them to the next step."

TVG will hook into a subscriber’s television via their existing cable company. It will provide real-time odds, weather conditions, scratches, equipment and jockey changes, handicapping data and results. The system has been tested in 1,200 homes in Louisville, Ky., with promising results. To fill time, TVG will feature inserts for local racing, tutorials, advertising and merchandising.

Wagering will be possible in states that have legislation already in place, including Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Oregon.

NFL LEGENDS HEADLINE BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

The annual Breakfast of Champions, held in conjunction with the West Virginia Breeders Classics at Charles Town, will feature Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas as well as ex-Washington Redskins’ Joe Jacoby and Mark Mosley. NFL great Sam Huff, president of the West Virginia Breeders Classics, will host the event, to be held Saturday, Sept. 20. The proceeds from the breakfast will be donated to Jordy Carper, a 10-year-old from Hedgesville, W.V., who recently underwent a double-lung transplant. The West Virginia Breeders Classics, to be run on Sunday, Sept. 21, are in their 11th year, and feature nine stakes races.

RECORDS FALL AS KEENELAND SALE ENDS

The recently concluded 1997 Keeneland September Yearling Sale posted huge gains over last year and continued the growth of years past. Overall, 2,844 horses sold during the sale for gross receipts of $154,666,800, a 12.6% increase over the previous record of $137,358,500 when 2,949 yearlings sold in 1996.

Average price was up for the fifth straight year, jumping 16.8 percent to a record $54,384. A total of 148 yearlings sold for $200,000 or more, including two who topped the $1 million mark, the first time in auction history that has occurred.

The sales topper, a $2.3-million Mr. Prospector colt purchased by Satish Sanan, was the most ever paid for a September yearling, and it marked the first time in history that Keeneland September offered a higher-priced yearling than Keeneland’s July Select Sale.

Sept. 19, 1943: Rider Eddie Arcaro returned to racing after a 12-month suspension that resulted from his attempt to injure a fellow rider in the Cowdin Stakes the previous year.

Sept. 19, 1942: Alsab, runner-up in the 1942 Kentucky Derby, beat 3-10 favorite Whirlaway, the 1941 Triple Crown champion, by a nose in a $25,000 match race at Narragansett Park.

Sept. 20, 1965: Jockey Jorge Velasquez made his American racing debut, riding for owner Fred W. Hooper, at Atlantic City Racecourse. He won with his first mount, Keypoint, in the sixth race, at 8-1 odds.

Sept. 20, 1976: Two-year-old Seattle Slew made his racing debut, winning a six-furlong maiden race by five lengths at Belmont Park.

Sept. 20, 1980: Before a crowd of 23,000 spectators, four-year-old Spectacular Bid won the Woodward Stakes in the world’s richest walkover. To the surprise of trainer Bud Delp and owners Harry, Teresa and Tom Meyerhoff, Spectacular Bid was awarded only $73,300, half of the winner’s share of the purse, but all that was allowable under the track’s rules. There had not been a walkover in a major U.S. stakes race since Coaltown won the Edward Burke Handicap on April 23, 1949.

Sept. 21, 1938: A hurricane disrupted racing at Rockingham Park, which ended the day’s program after the sixth race. Thirteen barns were destroyed during the storm.

Sept. 21, 1940: For the first time in the history of photo finishes a triple dead heat for first place was recorded, at Willow’s Park, Victoria, British Columbia.

Sept. 22, 1996: Larry Ross trained the top four finishers in a seven-horse field for the Washington HBPA Stakes at Emerald Downs.

Sept. 24, 1943: The Jockey Club announced the creation of The Jockey Club Foundation, which was established to aid indigent members of the racing community.

Sept. 25, 1866: Jerome Park, named for its founder, Leonard W. Jerome, opened in the Bronx, N.Y. The track was a magnet for New York’s fashionable society, and the first to attract women in large numbers. Even the racehorses were fashionable, with ribbons of their owners’ colors braided into their manes and tails.

Sept. 26, 1942: The Jockey Club stewards revoked Eddie Arcaro’s license for one year after his display of ‘rough riding’ aboard odds-on favorite Occupation in the Cowdin Stakes on Sept. 19. In the Cowdin, Arcaro deliberately drove his horse into another, Breezing Home, knocking his jockey, Vincent Nodarse, into the infield. Nodarse and his mount had crowded Arcaro at the start of the race, almost causing him to be unseated.

Sept. 27, 1894: Aqueduct Racetrack opened its doors. The building was torn down in 1955 and the new Aqueduct was reopened on Sept. 14, 1959.

Sept. 27, 1947: Armed, then the world’s leading money-winning Thoroughbred, met 1946 Kentucky Derby winner Assault in the first $100,000 winner-take-all match race, held at Belmont Park. Armed earned an easy victory over Assault, who was not in peak racing condition.

Sept. 20, Racehorse Digest, 5:30-6:00 a.m., ESPN
Sept. 20, Racing to the Breeders’ Cup, 5:30-6:30 p.m., ESPN
Woodward Stakes, Belmont
Ruffian Handicap, Belmont
Sept. 21, Racing to the Breeders’ Cup, 5:00-6:00 p.m., ESPN
Man o’ War Stakes, Belmont
The Futurity, Belmont
The Matron Stakes, Belmont
Sept. 22, Seventies Sweeps, 4:30-5:00 a.m., ESPN
Sept. 22, Derby Dreams, 5:00-5:30 a.m., ESPN
Sept. 24, Racehorse Digest, 3:30-4:00 p.m., ESPN
Sept. 25, Racehorse Digest 3:00-3:30 a.m., ESPN
Sept. 25, Cigar: Horse of the World, 3:30-4:00 p.m., ESPN
Sept. 27, Racehorse Digest, 5:30-6:00 a.m., ESPN
Sept. 27, West Virginia Breeders Classic, Charles Town, 3:30-4:00 p.m., ESPN2

Jerome Handicap, 3yo, $150,000, 1 Mile, Grade II, Belmont
Richter Scale, winner of the Grade III Derby Trial Stakes on April 26, makes his first start in nearly four months. He was fourth, beaten 1 1-4 lengths, by Langfuhr, in the May 26 Grade I Metropiltan Handicap at Belmont Park. Also expected to run are Wagon Limit, who has four victories and two seconds in six starts, and Trafalger, who finished a distant third in the King’s Bishop Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 23.

Ruffian Handicap, 3&up (f&m), $250,000, 1 1/16 Miles, Grade I, Belmont
Clear Mandate, who won the Grade I John A. Morris Handicap on Aug. 22 by five lengths, heads the field. Shoop, runner-up in the Morris is also entered, as is Royal Indy, winner of the Grade I gazelle Handicap, and Mil Kilates, who beat Shoop in an allowance race on Sept. 7.

Woodward Stakes, 3&up, $500,000, 1 1/8 Miles, Grade I, Belmont
Skip Away, Will’s Way and Formal Gold meet yet again in the Woodward. Formal Gold defeated Skip Away in the Grade I Donn Handicap in the spring and beat him again in the Grade II Philip H. Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park on Aug. 23. Skip Away won the Grade II Suburban and Grade III Massachusetts Handicaps, while Will’s Way beat both the Aug. 2 Grade I Whitney Handicap at Saratoga.

Buick Pegasus Handicap, 3yo, $1,000,000, 1 1/8 Miles, Grade II, Meadowlands
Touch Gold, whose only defeat this year came when he went to his knees at the start of the Preakness, looks to go 5-for-6 and solidify his position as top three-year-old colt. Touch Gold won the Grade I Belmont Stakes and Grade I Haskell Invitational Handicap. Bob Baffert, who was denied a Triple Crown with Silver Charm by Touch Gold in the Belmont, will challenge with Anet, second in the Haskell. Dwyer Stakes winner Behrens, who was beaten by a nose in the Grade I Travers Stakes, Aug. 23, and Pennsylvania Derby winner Frisk Me Now, are also expected to start.

Woodbine Mile, 3&up, $500,000, 1 Mile Turf, Woodbine
America’s top horse, Gentlemen (ARG), heads a field of 12 in the Woodbine Mile. The five-year-old has proven difficult to beat on dirt or turf, winning four of five starts this year, and is 3-for-3 on turf lifetime. Grade I winners Geri and Helmsman are entered as is Same Old Wish, third in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, and Kiridashi, who has won three races on Woodbine’s turf course.

Barretts Juvenile Stakes, 2yo (c&g), $100,000, 6 1/2 Furlongs, Fairplex

Bay Meadows Handicap, 3&up, $200,000, 1 1/16 Miles Turf, Grade III, Bay Meadows

River City B.C. Stakes, 3&up (f&m), $75,000, 1 1/16 Miles Turf, Grade III, Loisiana Downs

Safely Kept Stakes, 3yo fillies, $100,000, 6 Furlongs, Grade III, Colonial Downs

Man o’ War Stakes, 3&up, $400,000, 1 3/8 Miles Turf, Grade I, Belmont
Annus Mirabilis (FR), who has run in Japan, Hong Kong, Ireland, France, England and the United Arab Emirates, makes his North American debut against a talented field pointing towards the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Turf, Nov. 8. Expected to run are: multiple stakes winners Awad and Flag Down; Caesars International and Bowling Green Handicap winner Influent; and Bernard Baruch Handicap winner Sentimental Moi.

Ascot Stakes, 3yo, $100,000, 1 1/16 Miles Turf, Grade III, Bay Meadows

Barretts Debutante Stakes, 2yo fillies, $100,000, 6 1/2 Furlongs, Fairplex

Futurity Stakes, 2yo, $150,000, 1 Mile, Grade I, Belmont

Matron Stakes, 2yo fillies, $150,000, 1 Mile, Grade I, Belmont

West Virginia Breeders Classic, 3&up, $150,000, 1 1/8 Miles, Charles Town