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

Vol. 10, No. 29

BREEDERS' CUP PREVIEW
FOURTH OF FIVE ISSUES SPOTLIGHTING THE PEOPLE AND HORSES OF RACING'S $11 MILLION DAY.

NEWS, NAMES AND NOTES
CHURCHILL DOWNS CONSIDERS NEW METHOD FOR DERBY POST POSITION DRAW; TURF PARADISE GIVES FANS AN UP-CLOSE LOOK AT RACING; AND MORE.

FROM THE MAGAZINE SHELF
THE NEW YORKER OFFERS A LOOK AT OLD SPORT MAKING ITSELF ANEW.

PLUS RACING TO HISTORY; THOROUGHBRED WORLD SCHEDULE FOR OCTOBER; RACING ON THE AIR; THE TRC NATIONAL POLL.

ADVISORIES: Thoroughbred Racing Communications will host its final media teleconference previewing the 14th running of the Breeders' Cup Saturday, Nov. 8 at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif. The teleconference is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 3:30 p.m. (EST) and will feature owners, trainers and jockeys who are expected to participate in the Breeders' Cup, as well as the announcement of the

Breeders' Cup pre-entries. The telephone number will be (719) 386-9006. Thoroughbred Racing Communications will provide Breeders' Cup audio feeds to radio networks and stations starting Tuesday, Nov. 4 and continuing through Saturday, Nov. 8. The TRC phone number in the Hollywood Park press box will be: (310) 674-5926. For additional information about the feeds, contact TRC at (212) 371-5910.

TRC's twice-weekly releases are available on the following web sites. Some post Thursday's TRC Thoroughbred Notebook, others have Tuesday's TRC Media Update and some have both.

Equibase Company: (www.equibase.com/home.html) under "Media and Press Information"

The Blood-Horse: (www.bloodhorse.com/news/index.html) under "News"

ESPN Sportszone: (espnet.sportszone.com/horse/)

CBS Sportsline(www.sportsline.com/u/racing/horse/index.html)

The Running Horse, with a complete three-year archive of Notebooks: (https://www.isd1.com/)

All TRC releases can be e-mailed for immediate delivery. In addition, Media Update can be formatted for most PC-based word processors (as well as Word for Macintosh). Contact Howard Bass at TRC, (212) 371-5913, or at [email protected], to receive your newsletters via e-mail.

General admission tickets for the Nov. 8 Breeders' Cup at Hollywood Park, Inglewood, Calif., are available in advance from Ticketmaster.

Tickets are $10 and can be ordered by telephone at (213) 480-3232, or by a visit to any Ticketmaster outlet. There is a one-time $2.05 service charge for phone orders. Patrons who purchase general admission tickets through Ticketmaster will receive a free Breeders' Cup souvenir program.

A limited number of $70 reserved seats situated between the sixteenth and eighth poles have become available. Grandstand seats at the head of the stretch are $35; temporary bleacher seats located between the sixteenth pole and the top of the stretch cost $25. All reserved seat prices include parking and admission. Groups of 10 or more can purchase reserved seats located on the sixth floor of the Pavilion. Tickets are $75 each and include a gourmet box lunch. Tables of four overlook the

clubhouse turn and a jumbo TV screen will be situated in the south end of the infield for enhanced viewing. Reserved tickets can be purchased via telephone at (310) 330-7251, or at Santa Anita Park's ticket office.

Racing currently is being conducted at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., Wednesday through Sunday until Nov. 3. For group ticket information call (310) 419-1529.

The schedule for the Breeders' Cup Newsfeed appears below. Changes from last week's published schedule are reflected in the listings for Nov. 6 and 7. Audio for all feeds will be 6.2/6.8; all times listed are EASTERN. SMTI will produce and John Henderson will coordinate the Newsfeed. He can be reached at (606) 293-0683. Starting Nov. 3, broadcast outlets and racetracks should contact the Newsfeed office in Los Angeles at (310) 606-3839.

The seven Breeders' Cup races go a long way in deciding the Eclipse Award winners but they also have a huge impact on the list of North American million-dollar race winners. There are 15 million-dollar races in North America this year, with seven being Breeders' Cup events. Jockeys Jerry Bailey and Jose Santos won million-dollar races over the weekend, giving each 13 seven-figure career victories in North American races. They are tied with Laffit Pincay Jr. in fourth place behind Pat Day (16), Chris McCarron (15) and Gary Stevens (14). Stevens has four this year; the record is five, set by Santos in 1990. Bailey's win aboard Skip Away gave the four-year-old colt three million-dollar wins, tying him with Alysheba and Best Pal atop the list. Gentlemen (ARG), winner of the $1 million Hollywood Gold Cup and the $1 million Pacific Classic, could join Skip Away if he captures the Breeders' Cup Classic. D. Wayne Lukas, with 22 wins, tops the trainers' list, with 13 of those wins coming in the Breeders' Cup. Shug McGaughey (11) and Charlie Whittingham (10) are far behind.

There aren't many major stakes races in Thoroughbred racing that Jerry Bailey hasn't won in the past few years and nowhere has his success been more evident than in the Breeders' Cup Classic. He won his first one in 1991 aboard Black Tie Affair (IRE) at Churchill Downs, but then strung three consecutive Classic victories together by winning with Arcangues at Santa Anita in 1993, with Concern at Churchill Downs in 1994 and with Cigar at Belmont Park in 1995.

In other words, he won four $3 million Classics in five years. With the 14th running of the Breeders' Cup Classic looming less than three weeks away-and now carrying a $4 million purse for a second consecutive year-Bailey recently reflected on what the Breeders' Cup Classic wins have meant to his career and to him personally.

For one thing, says Bailey, a victory in the world's richest race provides an invaluable amount of self-confidence. "Any time you walk into a jocks' room or onto a track and you haven't won one of those races, you look around at the guys who have and no matter how confident you might be [about your chances], in the back of your mind you're wondering if you belong with these guys," he explained. "But once you've done that, it erases any doubt that any rider might ever have about himself."

While most riders usually say the Kentucky Derby is the one race they would most like to win, Bailey points out that the Classic bears a prestige of its own. "I don't think there's as much hoopla leading up to it as there is for the Kentucky Derby, but it is the richest race in the world so it carries its own prestige and its own trademark and I think it's very important to owners and trainers around the country."

Here are some of Bailey's recollections of the four Classic victories and how he got the mounts:

Black Tie Affair (IRE), 1991 Breeders' Cup Classic: "Pat Day was committed to Summer Squall and honored his commitment so Charlie Bettis [trainer Ernie Poulos' assistant] called my agent Bob Frieze and asked if we'd like to ride the horse.... A lot of it had to do with how hot I was that year with Hansel and Meadow Star. . . . I worked him in Chicago and at Churchill Downs and even though I hadn't ridden him in a race I'd worked him before. He was a pretty simple horse to ride. . . . That race still holds a special place in my heart. The owner, Jeff Sullivan, gave me a breeding right to the horse which no one had ever done before (with the exception of one other guy, Mandysland Farm and a horse called Nepal), but this was the first horse of any consequence so it really does stand special in my mind. It was a lot of celebration . . . it was two Chicago guys, Ernie Poulos and Sullivan, and I'd gone through Chicago early in my career so it was like old home week. That ended a great year. [Winning] the Preakness and Belmont with Hansel probably catapulted me to national prominence but if you needed an exclamation point to the end of the year, I think that was it. After '91, I don't think anyone had a question about whether or not I could win a big-money race."

Arcangues, 1993 Breeders' Cup Classic: "I didn't really have a mount two weeks out from the race. I was riding Grand Jewel for [trainer] Neil Howard and I went to Beulah Park on a snowy, nasty day trying to get enough points for him to get in the Breeders' Cup. He finished off the board and I was very distraught because that was my Breeders' Cup mount.. . . He didn't run well, he didn't end up getting in and Mike Smith had the mount on Arcangues. When [trainer] Allen Jerkens decided to go with Devil His Due, Steve Adika [Mike Smith's agent] jumped off Arcangues onto Devil His Due and that left Arcangues. When they asked Bob Frieze if he'd like to ride him, he said yes because we had no other mount. . .. I walked into the paddock, I had never ridden for [trainer]Andre Fabre, I didn't know what he looked like and I couldn't find him. It was very crowded, the lad put me up on the horse and started speaking to me in French and I had no idea what he was saying, so I just nodded my head in acknowledgement. Finally, Fabre did see me as I walked out and he said "Let him drop back and make a run with him," which I had pretty much decided to do anyway. In lieu of instructions, I was just going to ride him like a European horse. I remember going by the tote board and looking at it and it said 99-1 and I thought to myself, 'I hope I'm not trailing the field by 50 lengths coming by the stands . . . but believe me, from the time he left the gate, he felt like he'd run very well and I had a great trip. . . . I think I rode him as well as I rode Grindstone [when he won the 1996 Kentucky Derby]. I took him back and got through the entire field without checking at any point. Andre Fabre did a wonderful job and he might not have gotten much recognition. And if you look back at Arcangues' form, he did have a legitimate chance to win. He had beaten Arazi earlier in the year on the grass. . . . There is a sense of satisfaction to win with a longshot like that. That might be one for the history books that no one will ever break.

Concern, 1994 Breeders' Cup Classic: "I rode Concern in the Super Derby and was second. I probably could have won it if I was a little closer to the pace. But I really gauged when I could make my run and I thought I had a good chance going into the Classic although he was a three-year-old running against older horses. . . . I had never ridden for [trainer] Dick Small or [the owners, the] Meyerhoffs that I could recall, but he was a horse who posed problems because he came from so far back you had traffic to deal with and [had to] worry about pace. But by the time I got to the Classic, I knew just about where I had to make my run with him and where I had to position him. The only thing that put a damper on the Concern story was how it ultimately played out after that, never getting to ride him again, Dickie Small getting mad at me for working the horse wrong in New Orleans and it just didn't play out very well. I never rode Black Tie Affair again-he was retired; I never rode Concern again. I did ride Arcangues back one time, but not the next time after that . . . of the first three of my four winners, I never really got on their backs again. I didn't see them before and I never saw them after. I think that's a good plug for the theory about being in the right place at the right time."

Actually, Bailey did see Concern again-when Cigar beat him in the 1995 Breeders' Cup Classic at Belmont Park. And if Bailey had to pick one Classic that meant the most to him, it would probably be that one. Cigar, 1995 Breeders' Cup Classic: "All the stuff leading up to it and the relationship which I had with Cigar that I hadn't had with any previous horses made it special. It was an ongoing thing with a lot of hype and certainly lived up to it. He took a bad track and a bad post and overcame both of them and ran like the star that he was. That was the 10th consecutive win of the year and he'd won two in the fall of '94 so that was the 12th win in a row. That might have been the most satisfying [Classic win] just because it was Cigar and the greatness he showed. Belmont Park was my home base and everything . . . the pressure was unbelievable for both myself and for [trainer] Bill Mott. It was a wonderful day for both of us and I don't know if it could get any better."

But that doesn't mean he won't be trying to win his fifth Classic. Bailey made a commitment to ride the Jim Bond-trained Behrens in this year's Classic and he is cautiously optimistic three weeks beforehand. "He's a big, good looking colt and he always has been," he said. "He's been a late developer for various reasons. What I like about him is this: he got beat a nose in the Travers and for a young horse to try as hard as he did and get beat a nose, a lot of times it will take something out of him. For him to come back and win the Pegasus and actually get better off that narrow defeat was a major accomplishment. It showed a lot of courage and that's what gives me hope."

Although the four Classic victories provided Bailey with more than $600,000 (before he paid his agent and Uncle Sam), he says that the accomplishments themselves will mean more than the money in the long run. "If you look at it the way I look at it of late, it's how will you be remembered in the sport years from now," Bailey said. "The dollars are going to mean something but they're going to change and they're not going to mean a lot whereas the actual accomplishments themselves will.. . . Winning so many [Classics] in a row, or so many total, I look back and I have no idea what the value of the Kentucky Derby was when Eddie Arcaro and Bill Shoemaker and Bill Hartack were riding in them, but I know to win five like Hartack did and Arcaro did-and Shoemaker won four-I can't see it happening again. Nobody knows about the dollar total, but they know how many they won."

The Kentucky Racing Commission last week approved a request by Churchill Downs to change the method by which post positions are drawn for the Kentucky Derby, but the Louisville, Ky., track wants to know how the public and horsemen feel about the proposed switch before deciding whether or not to implement it for the 1998 Run for the Roses.

Traditionally, the post position for each horse is determined by a blind draw in which the name of each horse is drawn and then a numbered pill is pulled. Under the proposed "revolutionary format," owners and trainers of Derby entrants would be able to choose their post position after a selection order (by horse) has been established by a blind draw.

Here's how a few horsemen feel about the proposed change:

* Bob Baffert: "I think it's a great idea and I hope to be able to participate in it! Trainers will really have to do their homework and you'll get some different quotes [from trainers] after the draw. There's still chance involved and I think it adds a little to the draw."

* Mark Hennig: "Basically, it's a made-for-TV thing and it won't change a lot, except to make the post position draw more time consuming. The bottom line is, if you get post positions one through 10, that's better than getting 10 through 20. I don't think post position is that important in a mile-and-a-quarter race, so it won't change much. If it's good for the game, I'm all for it."

* Ron McAnally: "I think it's a good deal and I don't see anything wrong with it. Maybe if they did it this way, there wouldn't be so much complaining about post position."

* Chris McCarron: "I think it's pretty clever and I think it's a great idea. Trainers will have to employ some heavy strategy in making their selections. It sure will provide food for thought and stir up interest as a topic of conversation leading up to the Derby. You'll probably have some people squawking about it when all is said and done but you have that now. I hope it flies. If it doesn't work for some reason, they can always go back to the old way."

* Bill Mott: "It's an interesting concept. I doubt anyone will ask for post position 20. I think most trainers are just glad to have a horse n

the Derby and at the end of the day, the race will turn out the same. It would be fun [to try it this way] I suppose."

* Shug McGaughey: "I don't know why they want to change tradition, but it doesn't matter to me. It's a pretty cut-and-dried thing: if you get the first pick, you know what you're going to take and if you get a later pick, you just take the best available post position."

* Jack Van Berg: "I like the idea. It's interesting and it wouldn't hurt anything. I like to try new things. I'd like them to draw the trainers' names and let them pick positions, but I could see where that could get confusing if the trainer had more than one horse."

A peek into the behind-the-scenes world of racing will be offered by Turf Paradise racetrack, Phoenix, Ariz. Beginning Nov. 22, the track will host a series of free "Boots and Bridle Tours" on two Saturdays each month through March 28.

The tours will begin at 8:30 a.m. with a look at morning workouts. Track personnel will explain the role exercise plays in the fitness of the racehorse. After the workout session, the tour will visit the Racing Secretary's office followed by a stop in the Arizona Department of Racing to gain an understanding of licensing procedures. From 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. guests will be taken by tram for a tour of the backside stable area. A trainer will give a tour of a barn and explain the daily operations of a racing stable and the care given to the horses.

Additional speakers on the tour will include a veterinarian, jockeys and others involved in racing. At the conclusion of the tour, guests will be given free passes to that day's races and children will be given coloring books.

The dates for the "Boots and Bridle Tours" are as follows: Nov. 22 and 29; Dec. 13 and 27; Jan 10 and 31; Feb. 21 and 28; and March 7 and 28, weather permitting. The tours are limited to 50 people and reservations can be made by calling (602) 375-6467. School groups are welcome.

NOTES: Tom Aronson (of ODS Entertainment), Steve Crist (former turf writer and NYRA executive), Biggs Tabler (of Tabler Communications) and Mike Trager (of Sports Marketing & Television International) will be among the panelists discussing horse racing and gaming when Kagan Seminars Inc. hosts a Media Sports Business conference Nov. 12-13 in New York City. For more information about the conference, call (408) 624-1536. . .The deadline for submitting media entries for Eclipse Awards is Dec. 1, 1997. The categories are: newspaper, magazine, photography, national television, local television and radio. For additional information, contact Conrad Sobkowiak at the Thoroughbred Racing Associations (TRA) at (410) 392-9200. . .On Oct. 17, the Board of Directors of the Ontario Jockey Club voted unanimously to remove Frank Stronach as a member and director of the OJC. George Hendrie, chairman of the OJC, cited an interview that Stronach gave, which appeared in the Aug. 25 Toronto Sun, as the event that precipitated the vote.

PERSONNEL: Richard Orbann, formerly the general manager of Garden State Park, has been named vice president of racing operations for International Thoroughbred Breeders, which owns GSP and Freehold Raceway. He replaces Robert J. Quigley, who was removed as president in a restructuring.

A sport that's not played at elementary and middle schools. No contracts with athletic shoe manufacturers. No upscale line of apparel. Middle-aged fans. Star athletes who come and go. Status quo. Welcome to the world of racing? No, the National Football League. The NFL, while still a behemoth in sports, has reached a plateau, according to author John Seabrook, whose article "Tackling the Competition" appeared in the Aug. 18 issue of The New Yorker. Urban youngsters no longer play football, says Seabrook-basketball's the thing. Suburban kids play soccer. Skateboards and computers are more cool than watching the Cowboys kick another field goal.

The aging NFL has decided it's time to freshen up its image, and it's doing so with marketing. However, "from a modern sports-marketing perspective," Seabrook wrote, "football has two basic flaws: you can't see the players' faces and you can't wear their shoes." Football players, said Seabrook, are "hulks behind helmets . . . faceless performers for the team. Football is about character, not personality."

The concept of a team is difficult to convey to younger fans, he adds, because "today's sports marketing is about the face, the individual, the personality." The young are also less likely to dress like football stars. According to one Reebok executive, "the company spends eight to ten times as much money promoting basketball players as promoting football players, because it sells many more pairs of basketball shoes than pairs of 'cleated footwear.'"

These two fundamental problems notwithstanding, NFL has devised a marketing strategy under the leadership of former MTV co-president Sara Levinson, which emphasizes football's "core equities" and "key symbols."

Along with the themes of football's action/power, history/tradition, thrill/release, teamwork/competition, authenticity and unifying force, the NFL is also emphasizing a "mission" that seeks to attract youngsters ages 6 to 11 through a program of flag football games, education, alignment with pop culture, and the portrayal of players as personalities.

Whether it will work remains to be seen, but the struggle of the NFL to realign itself with youth is a story worth following.

Oct. 22, 1945: El Lobo and Featherfoot became the first Thoroughbreds to be transported by airplane. They were flown from Los Angeles to San Mateo in a twin-engine Budd transport plane piloted by Maj. William Hoelle of the Flying Tiger Line, who landed the plane in the parking area at Bay Meadows. On Oct. 27, El Lobo won the Burlingame Handicap at Bay Meadows, proving that horses could fly (and win).

Oct. 22, 1955: A rare triple dead-heat for first took place at Mexico's Caliente in the eighth race. Stormsorno, Chance Speed and Beaufair were the three winners.

Oct. 22, 1964: Jockey Bill Shoemaker won the 5,000th victory of his career aboard Slapstick at Aqueduct Race Track.

Oct. 22, 1973: Secretariat was flown to Woodbine Racecourse, where he would compete in his final career race, the Canadian International Championship Stakes.

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. 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, in the ninth race at Aqueduct.

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. 30, 1937: Sir Barton, the first American Triple Crown winner, died at age 21.

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.

Thoroughbred World is produced by Phoenix Communications in association with Thoroughbred Racing Communications and is available on many regional sports cable networks. During the month of October on Thoroughbred World: A look at the new career of former Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Thirty Slews; Virginia governor George Allen and ex-governor Thomas Jefferson help open Colonial Downs; Six-year-old

Thoroughbred owner Elizabeth Ellis; Tom Durkin chats with equine artist Richard Stone Reeves; and Caton Bredar hosts the "The Equibasics of Racing" segment.

The following are the cable networks and their air times for October-ALL TIMES EASTERN.

The PRIME Network feed of Thoroughbred World can be seen by those who own satellite dishes on SATCOM C3, Transponder 11, on the following dates (all times Eastern): Oct. 7, 2:30 p.m.; Oct. 21, 2:30 a.m.; Oct. 28, 3 p.m.

FOX Sports Intermountain West: Oct. 13, 5 p.m.; Oct. 20, 5 p.m.; Oct. 24, 6 p.m.; Oct. 27, 5 p.m.

FOX Sports Rocky Mountain: Oct. 13, 5 p.m.; Oct. 20, 5 p.m.; Oct. 24, 6 p.m.; Oct. 27, 5 p.m.

FOX Sports Southwest: Oct. 13, 3 a.m. & 1:30 p.m.; Oct. 24, 2 a.m.

FOX Sports West: Oct. 9, 3:30 a.m.; Oct. 14, 3:30 a.m.; Oct. 16, 3:30 a.m.; Oct. 17, 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 19, 3:30 a.m.; Oct. 23, 3;30 a.m.; Oct. 26, 3:30 a.m.; Oct. 27, 3:30 a.m.; Oct. 31, 3:30 a.m.

FOX Sports West 2: Oct. 25, 6:30 p.m.; Oct. 27, 9 p.m. Madison Square Garden Network: Oct. 7, 2:30 p.m.; Oct. 21, 2:30 a.m.; Oct. 28, 3 p.m.

Pro-Am Sports System: Oct. 7, 2:30 p.m.; Oct. 21, 2:30 a.m.; Oct. 28, 3 p.m.

SportsChannel New York: Oct. 14, 12:30 a.m.; Oct. 20, 6:30 p.m.; Oct. 27, 6:30 p.m.

Oct. 22 Racehorse Digest 3:30-4:00 p.m. ESPN
Oct. 23 Racehorse Digest 3:30-4:00 a.m. ESPN
Oct. 25 Racehorse Digest 5:30-6:00 a.m. ESPN
Oct. 29 Racehorse Digest 3:30-4:00 p.m. ESPN
Oct. 30 Racehorse Digest 3:30-4:00 a.m. ESPN
Nov. 1 Racehorse Digest 5:30-6:00 a.m. ESPN

THOROUGHBRED RACING LEADERS

Unofficial standings (subject to audit) through Sunday, October 19, 1997, as compiled by Equibase Company.

Week 34 of the 1997 TRC NATIONAL THOROUGHBRED POLL, based on the votes of sports and Thoroughbred racing media. The Top Ten are listed in the following expanded chart each week in TRC Media Update. (Statistics courtesy of The Jockey Club Information Systems' Equine Line(tm).)

POLL 1997 RECORD
HORSE Pts,1st Owner Sts-1-2-3 LAST START (Finish, Field size)
Pedigree Last Week Trainer Earnings (Date, Distance, Track)
1-GENTLEMEN (ARG) 205,11 Andrea E. Stable & R.D. Hubbard 6-4-0-1 Woodbine Mile (5th, 12)

5H by Robin des Bois-Elegant Glance 1st Richard Mandella $2,125,300
(9/20, 1 MT, WO)
2-FORMAL GOLD 191,7 John Murphy Sr. 9-4-2-1 Woodward S. (1st, 5)

4C by Black Tie Affair (IRE)-Ingoldsby 2nd William Perry $1,198,500 (9/20, 1 1/16 M, Bel)
3-TOUCH GOLD 149,0 Frank Stronach & Stonerside Farm 6-4-0-0 Buick Pegasus S. (4th, 4)

3C by Deputy Minister-Passing Mood 3rd David Hofmans $1,522,313 (9/20, 1 1/8 M, Med)
4-SILVER CHARM 140,4 Bob & Beverly Lewis 6-3-3-0 Belmont S. (2nd, 7)

3C by Silver Buck-Bonnie's Poker 4th Bob Baffert $1,598,750 (6/7, 1 1/2 M, Bel)
5-SKIP AWAY 124,0 Carolyn Hine 10-3-5-2 Jockey Club Gold Cup (1st, 7)

4C by Skip Trial-Ingot Way 6th Sonny Hine $1,801,000 (10/18, 1 1/4 M, Bel)
6-HIDDEN LAKE 85,0 Robert Clay 8-4-1-1 Beldame S. (1st, 8)

4F by Quiet American-Friendly Circle 11th John Kimmel $697,600 (10/18, 1 1/8 M, Bel)
7-DEPUTY COMMANDER 68,0 Horizon Stbl., Jarvis & Mandyland 9-4-1-1 Super Derby (1st, 6)

3C by Deputy Minister-Anka Germania (IRE) 7th Wallace Dollase $969,440 (9/28, 1 1/4 M, LaD)
8-FAVORITE TRICK 66,0 Lacombe Stables 7-7-0-0 Breeders' Futurity (1st,5)

2C by Phone Trick-Evil Elaine 10th Patrick Byrne $711,998 (10/18, 1 1/16 M, Kee)
9-BEHRENS 60,0 Rudlein Stable & William Clifton Jr. 6-4-1-0 Buick Pegasus S. (1st, 4)

3C by Pleasant Colony-Hot Novel 9th H. James Bond $894,000 (9/20, 1 1/8 M, Med)
10-INFLUENT 31,0 Turfnpaddock Farm 7-5-1-0 Man o' War S. (1st, 10)
6G by Ascot Knight-Katerina Key 12th Howard Tesher $754,876 (9/21, 1 3/8 MT, Bel)
OTHER HORSES RECEIVING VOTES

Sharp Cat-24
Siphon (BRZ)-16
Free House-10
Rainbow Dancer (FR)-9
Marlin-7
Blushing K.D.-5
Countess Diana-5
Grand Slam-5
Silver Maiden-3
Souvenir Copy-2
Victor Cooley-2
Memories of Silver-1
Sandpit (BRZ)-1 
Twice the Vice-1

RACETRACK ABBREVIATION KEY
Bel-Belmont Park; Kee-Keeneland; LaD-Louisiana Downs, Med-The Meadowlands; WO-Woodbine