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News and notes from around the Thoroughbred racing world, compiled by Thoroughbred Racing Communications, Inc. (TRC) (212.371.5911..)  SILVER CHARM'S RETURN HIGHLIGHTS OPENING DAY AT SANTA ANITA Santa Anita Park opens its 85-day meeting Friday, Dec. 26, and the star of the 1997 Triple Crown will take center stage when it does. Silver Charm, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness before running second to Touch Gold in the Belmont Stakes, will makes his first start since the Triple Crown in the $200,000 Malibu Stakes. Fans attending opening day for Santa Anita's 61st season of Thoroughbred racing will also receive a free color Santa Anita wall calendar. CALDER PLANS SPECIAL SENDOFF FOR VELASQUEZ DEC. 31 Hall of Fame jockey Jorge Velasquez will conclude a 34-year riding career, Dec. 31, at Calder Racecourse when the Miami track hosts Jorge Velasquez Day to honor the Chepo, Panama, native. Among the festivities: * Velasquez will sign complimentary color photographs in the paddock from 11 a.m. to noon. * The third race of the day will be named in his honor and the Calder jockey colony will join him in the winner's circle after the race for a farewell group photo. * Longtime Thoroughbred owner/breeder Fred Hooper, who was instrumental in bringing Velasquez to the United States to ride in 1965, will be on hand to pay tribute to Velasquez. (The $100,000 Fred Hooper Handicap will also be run that day and the 100-year-old Hooper will present the trophy.) * Calder will be showing a special Jorge Velasquez commemorative video produced by racing analyst/television producer Todd Schrupp. Velasquez, 50, announced his impending retirement in a press conference Nov. 19 at Aqueduct Racetrack and was honored there by the New York Racing Association three days later. He recently returned from a two-week vacation to Panama and has been working horses at Belmont Park in the morning to get ready for his final day of riding. 'Of course, I'm going to miss riding,' he said Tuesday, 'But I'm looking forward to retiring. I'm ready.' Velasquez won approximately 6,800 races and countless stakes races, including the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes with Pleasant Colony and the Breeders' Cup Classic with Proud Truth. He was also the regular rider on Alydar during the colt's epic rivalry with Affirmed in 1978. PERRET CHOSEN AS WOOLF AWARD WINNER Jockey Craig Perret has been named the 49th recipient of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, which recognizes a rider for bringing honor to the sport of Thoroughbred racing and to himself. 'Of all the awards that I've won, including the Eclipse, this will be the most emotional for me and have the deepest meaning because I was selected by my peers, the people I work and live with for more than eight hours a day,' Perret said. 'You can win a Derby or a Breeders' Cup, but this is different. It is an accumulation of your work over the years as measured by your peers.' A New Orleans native, Perret, 46, started riding Thoroughbreds at age 16 and in the years since, he has won more than 4,100 races. In 1990, he tied the record for stakes wins in a single year with 57, including the Kentucky Derby aboard Unbridled. He has also won the Belmont Stakes (aboard Bet Twice in 1987) and four Breeders' Cup races. Perret, who resides in Simpsonville, Ky., now rides mostly on the Kentucky circuit. The award, named after jockey George Woolf, who was killed in a spill at Santa Anita Park in 1946, will be presented to Perret sometime during Santa Anita Park's 1997-98 season, which begins Dec. 26. EVANGELINE DOWNS LEADS THE WAY FOR MACBETH FUND The Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund, which provides financial assistance to disabled exercise riders and jockeys, recently released the list of racetracks that raised the most money for the Fund with the annual Jockeys Across America Day IX back in July. The leader was Evangeline Downs in Lafayette, La. with a total of $18,022. Their fund-raising events included a dinner dance (featuring Cajun humorist Murray Conque, an auction and karoake performances) and an eight-team softball tournament. The remainder of the Top 10 fund-raisers included: Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa; River Downs in Cincinnati, O.; Canterbury Downs in Shakopee, Minn.; Emerald Downs in Auburn, Wash.; Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif.; Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Ok.; Saratoga Racecourse in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.; and Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie, Texas. INVITATION TO PLAY AUGUSTA SWAYED MCCARRON What does it take to get one of the nation's top jockeys to ride a longshot in the Kentucky Derby? In the case of Hall of Fame rider Chris McCarron in 1995, all it took was an invitation from Thoroughbred owner Bill Warren Jr. to play golf at Augusta National, site of The Masters. (Warren's horse, Knockadoon, finished seventh.) McCarron is an avid golfer and is profiled in 'My Home Course' segment of the November-December issue of 'Golf Journal.' McCarron, who resides in Sierra Madre, Calif., enjoys the solitude the game provides. 'The people who are into tennis or racquetball and whatever other sports, they say their biggest complaint about golf is that it's so time consuming,' he tells 'Golf Journal.' 'But that's exactly what I love about it. Once a week or so, I need my six hours away from everything...that's my escape and a real pleasant one - unless I shoot 88.' SITCOM FRIENDS PROVIDES FILLY WITH A NAME Actress Lisa Kudrow, who plays Phoebe, the somewhat off-the-wall sixties throwback in the sitcom Friends, has become a folk hero for Generation X with her guitar playing and singing at the local coffee shop featured in the show. Her signature song, Smelly Cat, can best be described as typical Phoebe fashion-a song with few words but lots of substance (in her mind at least). It's also the name of a two-year-old filly owned by James Karp of Louisville, Ky. The name was not his first choice. After several attempts to give his home-bred daughter of Mountain Cat-Elly's Quicksilver a more 'respectable' name while keeping either Cat or Elly in her name, he gave up. In desperation, and with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, Karp chose Phoebe's Smelly Cat song. And to his surprise, it wasn't taken. Smelly Cat won at first asking, Saturday, Dec. 13, at Laurel Park, rolling to a six-length win for trainer Bill Boniface and jockey Alberto Delgado. 'You had to hear the [Laurel track] announcer [Dave Rodman] give her a call,' said Karp. 'It was pretty funny listening to him.' Should Smelly Cat turn out to be a big stakes winner, Karp said he'll fly Lisa Kudrow to whatever track the filly is racing at and have her sing Smelly Cat. PURSES MAY GO WAY UP AT EMERALD DOWNS Emerald Downs, in Auburn, Wash., plans to raise purses more than 40 percent for its 1998 racing season, according to a letter from track president Ron Crockett to members of the state's racing community. In the letter, which was read aloud before Sunday's Washington Thoroughbred Breeders Association winter mixed sale, Crockett said that the success of full-card simulcasting during the off-season will enable the track to raise its purses 41.5 percent if current trends continue. TRA GOLF TOURNEY TO BENEFIT GRAYSON FOUNDATION The Thoroughbred Racing Associations (TRA) will host the Third Annual TRA-Eclipse Awards Charity Golf Tournament, Monday, Feb. 9, at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert, Calif. The tournament is held in conjunction with the TRA Annual Meeting and Eclipse Awards, Feb. 8-10, at the Westin Mission Hills Resort in Rancho Mirage. The designated charity for the golf tournament is the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. The $250 entry fee includes golf, cart, greens fees, tournament shirts and all food and beverages (a buffet luncheon before and cocktails during the awards presentation). The Bighorn Golf Club is co-owned by Hollywood Park chairman R.D. Hubbard and was the site of The Skins Games several years ago. Entries and payment must be received by Jan. 30. For additional information about the tournament, contact Nancy Kelly, the director of development for the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, at (212) 521-5305.
Dec. 20, 1987: D. Wayne Lukas-trained Tejano became the first juvenile millionaire when he won the Hollywood Futurity with Laffit Pincay Jr. aboard. Dec. 22, 1991: Jockey Kent Desormeaux, at age 21, won his 2,000th race aboard Saron Lake, trained by Gary Jones, at Hollywood Park. He was the youngest jockey to reach that mark and did so faster than any other rider. Dec. 23, 1944: James F. Byrnes, Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion, urged that all racing in the United States cease by Jan. 3 as a means of furthering the war effort. Dec. 25, 1934: Santa Anita Park opened in Arcadia, Calif. A five-year-old mare, Las Palmas, won the inaugural race, the California-Bred Handicap, before a crowd of 30,777. Dec. 27, 1982: English trainer Michael Dickinson saddled 12 winners, a record. Dec. 27, 1987: D. Wayne Lukas set a single-season record for stakes wins by a trainer, 92, when he saddled High Brite to win the Palos Verdes Handicap at Santa Anita Park.
Dec. 23 Racehorse Digest 4:00-4:30 p.m. ESPN Dec. 25 Racehorse Digest 3:30-4:00 a.m. ESPN Dec. 26 Racehorse Digest 5:30-6:00 a.m. ESPN
Ladies Handicap, 3&up (f&m), $100,000, 1 1-4 Miles, Grade II, Aqueduct W. L. McKnight Handicap, 3&up, $150,000, 1 1-2 Miles Turf, Grade II, Calder Illinois Breeders' Futurity, 2yo (c&g), $100,000, 1 1 -16 Miles, Hawthorne Safely Kept Handicap, 3&up (f&m), $75,000, 5 1-2 Furlongs Turf, Hollywood Park
Native Diver Handicap, 3&up, $100,000, 1 1-8 Miles, Grade III, Hollywood Park Flying Paster Handicap, 3yo, $75,000, 1 1-8 Miles Turf, Hollywood Park Christmas Futurity, 2yo, $75,000, 6 1-2 Furlongs, Turf Paradise |
