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News and notes from around the Thoroughbred racing world, compiled by Thoroughbred Racing Communications, Inc. (TRC) (212.371.5911..)  PARALYZED RIDER SIDNEY UNDERWOOD TRAINS HER FIRST WINNER Former jockey Sidney Underwood, who was paralyzed in a riding accident at Atlantic City Racecourse on June 19, 1992, made her training debut a successful one as she saddled Jersey Gold to victory in the fourth race at The Meadowlands, Sept. 30. Underwood, who had difficulties attracting owners for her new career, claimed Jersey Gold for herself on Sept. 18 for $5,000. 'I didn't need the financial woes of having an owner not paying the bill on top of everything else,' she said. 'So it might as well be mine. Now I've just got to keep this going, and maybe now people will buy horses for me to train.' Underwood, who won 199 races from 2,105 starts in an eight-year career, is not the only trainer to work from a wheelchair. Racing's all-time victory leader Bill Shoemaker, paralyzed in a 1991 auto accident, and Donna Zook, injured in a riding spill in 1977, also became trainers. LONE STAR PARK AT THE TEXAS FAIR Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie, Texas, is contributing to the Texas State Fair in Dallas with an educational display titled The World of Horses and four 15-minute daily performances featuring seven different horse breeds. Among the equines on hand will be a retired Thoroughbred now in his second career as a jumper; a Percheron, one of the largest draft breeds; and an American Miniature Horse, standing no higher than 34 inches at the shoulder. Also on display will be trophies; a horseshoe wall explaining the different types of horseshoes and their uses; and an exhibit from the National Racing Hall of Fame highlighting Assault, the only Texas-bred winner of the Triple Crown. Fans can test their riding skills on an Equicizer, a mechanical horse that simulates race riding which is used by jockeys for training and rehabilitation. The Fair runs through Oct. 19, Fridays through Wednesdays. IT'S A FAMILY DAY AT CALDER'S HORSE FAIR Calder Race Course, in Miami, Fla., will celebrate its second annual Horse Fair, Saturday, Oct. 4, in conjunction with its Festival of the Sun, the richest day in Florida Thoroughbred racing. This year a Horse Village has been created, enabling fans to actually get in and touch different breeds of horses. The Horse Village will feature demonstrations on equine acupuncture, as well as a blacksmith and veterinarian discussing and demonstrating their professions. There will be plenty of action on the track as well. After the first race, a ceremony will take place for retired Thoroughbreds near the winner's circle celebrating the second careers of the many racehorses who have become pleasure riding horses, jumpers, polo ponies and police mounts. A Parade of Breeds of 40 horses representing 14 breeds will be followed by a demonstration of dressage. NEWMARKET GOES FOR HIGH-TECH TIMING DEVICE England's Newmarket Racecourse became the first British track to introduce a sophisticated sectional timing system which registers a horse's time every quarter-mile when it opened its October Meeting, Sept. 30. The track has invested 200,000 pounds installing the equipment which records the time of each horse when a signal from a radio transponder inserted in the saddle cloth is received at each marker. During earlier experiments, some of the transponders were found to have come loose but with the equipment more securely fastened, racecourse chairman Peter Player expects the system to become 'the most important innovation since starting stalls.' He said that 'Every other sport with a speed element has some form of sectional timing and it's about time we took up the initiative by trying to catch up with them.' TRINITY MEADOWS SOLD, BECOMES SQUAW CREEK DOWNS Trinity Meadows Raceway in Willow Park, Texas, near Fort Worth, was officially sold Monday, Sept. 29. The track, which was purchased for $2.175 million at a bankruptcy auction two months ago, has been renamed Parker County's Squaw Creek Downs. Trinity Meadows closed on Aug. 6, 1996 amid mounting debt and competition from nearby Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie, outside Dallas. According to Daily Racing Form, attorneys for some of the track's former owners said that $4 million in liens had been attached to the property, including $600,000 in debts to various tracks around the country for their simulcast signals. The track's new investors outbid Penn National Racecourse and Lone Star Park at the auction and acquired the track debt-free, with proceeds of the sale to be divided among past lienholders, subject to the determination of a bankruptcy judge.
Oct. 3, 1942: With a victory in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Whirlaway, ridden by George Woolf, became the first Thoroughbred to amass more than $500,000 in lifetime earnings. Oct. 4, 1762: Nineteen members of England's Jockey Club announced an agreement at Newmarket to register their racing colors for purposes of distinguishing runners among a field of horses. The Duke of Devonshire chose 'straw,' and the color, still registered for the family, is the oldest continuously used color in racing. Oct. 4, 1970: Nijinsky II's 11-race winning streak came to an end when he ran second to Sassafras in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Oct. 4, 1980: Less than an hour before post time, Spectacular Bid was scratched from the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the race that was to have been his last. Trainer Bud Delp claimed that 'Bid' had a slight leg injury, but refused to allow a veterinarian to examine the horse and insisted he be retired. Despite this ignoble end to his career, Spectacular Bid's 1980 racing season was perfect: he won each of his nine starts, all of them stakes, and was subsequently voted Horse of the Year. Oct. 4, 1989: Secretariat, 1973 Triple Crown champion, was euthanized at Claiborne Farm, Paris, Ky., after suffering a severe case of laminitis. He was 19. Oct. 5, 1933: Jockey Gordon Richards concluded a 12-race winning streak that had begun on Oct. 3 when he won the last race at Nottingham, followed by a six-for-six day at Chepstow on Oct. 4 and five wins at Chepstow on Oct. 5. Oct. 5, 1953: Twenty-one years after he retired from riding, 54-year-old Earl Sande, 'the Handy Guy,' returned to the saddle, finishing third on Honest Bread at Belmont Park. Oct. 5, 1983: Jockey Jorge Velasquez won his 5,000th career race, riding Banquet Scene to victory in the fourth race at Belmont Park. Oct. 6, 1949: Col. Matt J. Winn, credited with making the Kentucky Derby the greatest horse race in America, died at the age of 88. He witnessed all of the first 75 Derbies. Oct. 6, 1979: In their only race together, champions Affirmed and Spectacular Bid met in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Odds-on favorite Affirmed, ridden by Laffit Pincay Jr., won by three-quarters of a length and became the first horse ever to earn more than $1 million in a single racing season. Affirmed was later voted Horse of the Year off this convincing victory over Spectacular Bid, who was named champion three-year-old. Oct. 6, 1989: Parimutuel racing returned to Texas with a meet held at G. Rollie White Downs. Racing had been banned in the state since 1937. Oct. 7, 1956: In his final start of his career, four-year-old Ribot won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe for the second consecutive year and retired a perfect 16-for-16. Oct. 8, 1973: Secretariat made his grass-racing debut in the Man o' War Stakes at Belmont Park, winning the 1 1-2-mile race by five lengths in a time of 2:24 4-5. He overran the finish line by another furlong, running 1 5-8 miles in a world-record-equaling time of 2:37 4-5.
Oct. 4, Racehorse Digest, 5:30-6:00 a.m., ESPN
Flower Bowl Handicap, 3&up (f&m), $400,000, 1 1-4 Miles Turf, Grade I, Belmont Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, 3yo fillies, $400,000, 1 1-8 Miles Turf, Grade I, Keeneland Brandywine Handicap, 3&up, $150,000, 1 1-8 Miles, Delaware Park California Sprint Championship Handicap, 3&up, $125,000, 6 Furlongs, Bay Meadows Cotillion Handicap, 3yo fillies, $150,000, 1 1-16 Miles, Grade II, Philadelphia Park Henry P. Russell Handicap, 3&up, $75,000, 1 1-8 Miles Turf, Santa Anita Indiana Derby, 3yo, $200,000, 1 1-16 Miles, Hoosier Park La Prevoyante Stakes, 3yo fillies, $75,000, 1 Mile Turf, Woodbine Montpelier Stakes, 3yo, $75,000, 6 Furlongs, Colonial Downs FLORIDA STALLION STAKES DAY AT CALDER Calder Breeders' Cup Handicap, 3&up (f&m), $75,000, 1 1-8 Miles Turf Flying Pidgeon Handicap, 3&up, $100,000, 7 1-2 Furlongs Turf Princess Rooney Handicap, 3&up (f&m), $250,000, 6 Furlongs Florida Stallion Stakes, In Reality Stakes, 2yo, $400,000, 1 1-16 Miles Florida Stallion Stakes, My Dear Girl Division, 2yo fillies, $400,000, 1 1-16 Miles
Arlington-Washington Futurity, 2yo, $150,000, 1 Mile, Grade II, Arlington British Columbia Premier's Championship, 3&up, $100,000, 1 3/8 Miles, Hastings Park Canadian Handicap, 3&up (f&m), $75,000, 1 1-16 Miles Turf, Woodbine Classics Day Classic Handicap, 3&up, $100,000, 1 1-16 Miles, Remington ark Garden City Stakes, 2yo, $75,000, 1 1-16 Miles Turf, Belmont Keeneland Breeders' Cup Mile Stakes, 3&up, $125,000, 1 Mile Turf, Grade III, Keeneland Las Palmas Handicap, 3&up (f&m), $125,000, 1 1-8 Miles Turf, Grade II, Santa Anita Staten Island Stakes, 2yo fillies, $75,000, 1 1-16 Miles Turf, Belmont |
