Back in New York after another exciting left coast Breeders’ Cup under sunny, blue skies and tall, skinny palm trees.
The accomplished, good-looking thoroughbreds who ran at Santa Anita Racecourse in Arcadia, CA last Friday and Saturday were the focus of course, but there were two stories involving jockeys that stood out as the weekend unfolded.
50-year old Gary Stevens (pictured above aboard Classic victor Mucho Macho Man) rode the winners of each day’s featured race. His 2013 return after eight years in retirement to work as an actor and broadcaster already had been a success. But to reach the winner’s circle in both the Distaff and Classic seals the triumph of his comeback. Not only does he appear to be in excellent physical shape, he has recaptured elite jockey status by quickly earning high quality mounts despite his time away. With a home track advantage, Stevens craftily deployed his deep knowledge of Santa Anita’s dirt oval which is unlike any of the major American racing surfaces. While the profound bias in favor of runners with early-in-the-race speed was in full effect on Friday, it gradually changed as the day went on Saturday. Stevens seemed to sense this better than most of the pilots en route to his two big wins. He also nearly won the Juvie Filles event but track stewards disqualified She’s A Tiger after Stevens and Tiger made contact with longshot Ria Antonia just before the line. It was in that race that She’s A Compass broke her left front leg. Jockey John Velasquez fell hard to the ground along with Compass. The filly was euthanized soon after and Velasquez was taken to a Pasadena hospital. What happened to Velasquez was the weekend’s other big human story.
There was no on-track announcement about the tragic fate of She’s A Compass – nor were fans ever told that Johnny V. was hurt. It was only when the live audience were given race-by-race jockey changes for Velasquez’s mounts that you knew something was wrong. Eventually we got word from a friend working at the auxiliary press box location that Velasquez would need to undergo surgery that day to have his spleen removed.
This was the third spill for Velasquez to cause serious injury in the last 18 months. He also broke a shoulder in 2006 in a bad fall at Keeneland. Velasquez turns 42 in a few weeks and has two children. How many more violent and sudden injuries can Johnny V. sustain before he decides to walk away? It’s something Stevens considered going in and out of retirement and it’s surely something Velasquez will think about going forward.
As for the death of She’s A Compass, many hardened racing fans reflect briefly on the circumstances and then move on to the next race, the next racing card. Most racing writers do the same. Joe Drape of the Times is different. Many view him as alarmist or misguided but I applaud his persistence in the pursuit of deeper understanding of thoroughbred fatalities. Drape stood alone as he often does in his immediate pursuit of this angle. He included an exclusive detail in his Times story that appeared in Monday’s paper about concerns over the hardness of the dirt track. Drape explained that an injury to Centralinteligence in Friday‘s Dirt Mile (after other runners were hurt while training on the dirt earlier in the week) prompted an intervention of sorts later on Friday: Said Drape: “Breeder’s Cup officials told executives at Santa Anita that they were concerned about the condition of the track, prompting an overtime effort by its ground crews to water and soften the track for Saturday, according to a Breeder’s Cup official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person did not have the authority to comment publicly.”
Drape noted that the trainer of She’s A Compass, Bob Baffert, is the focus of an investigation by California racing authorities into a series of breakdowns involving horses from his barn. Drape implored the owners of She’s A Compass to release the filly’s medical records which would show whether she was subject to any kind of treatment or injection which may reveal her fitness to perform in such a big race.
In a conversation with racing writer Jay Hovdey, Baffert blamed the inherent peril of racing competition for the breakdown as Compass ran along the rail in the middle portion of the turn for home. “That’s a danger zone right there, dropping into that turn, when they’re going that fast. And the good ones, they don’t protect themselves. They just run,” said Baffert.
Attendance on Saturday was announced at 58,795. It was 35,833 on Friday. Those numbers are a couple thousand more than what it was last year at the same venue.
Not to harp on location rotation of the Cup, but I was glad to see Princess of Sylmar owner Ed Stanco issue a public plea to award the 2015 Breeder’s Cup to a track other than Santa Anita. 2014’s Cup is already set to return to Santa Anita which will make it five years in the last seven there. Said Stanco: “If it’s a Breeders’ Cup championship, it should move around. If you don’t move it around, all it becomes is the California championship. The biggest problem we have is fan interest. The best way to develop fan interest is to take the game to them,” said Stanco. In other words, include New York’s Belmont Park in the mix.
We again stayed at the Saga Motor Hotel in Pasadena for this Cup. The motel’s proximity to the track and its reasonable nightly rate make it a great Cup lodging spot. We discovered our bathroom sink was clogged on arrival but it was fixed the next day. Water from the tap was filled with bubbles, almost foamy. When I asked the front desk if this was anything to be concerned about, I was told the water was filled with “air.” It smelled ok, but I was leery of drinking more than just the swig required after brushing teeth. I bought a big jug of bottled water to sip off throughout our stay.
Jeff returned home Sunday afternoon. I flew back to New York on Monday after spending the day with my pal Scooter and his family on Sunday. Scooter’s mother-in-law made her famous savory chicken croquettes and we watched the Blackhawks lose to Calgary in OT on the tube.
The security checkpoint in terminal 7 at LAX had a different feel to it Monday morning as I passed through. Passengers in line near me seemed more respectful than usual as they interacted with federal screeners.
I voted on Tuesday midday. To fit everything on a single sheet of paper, the ballot was printed using six point type which is microscopic to the naked eye. Even with reading glasses on, I had to really focus to read the ballot. Not only was it difficult to see but the ballot was constructed poorly. Like it was slapped together by a junior high school newspaper on paste-up deadline. After completing the choices for city offices, you had to flip the page to find the six proposals to amend the state constitution. Again, the type was so small, you couldn’t read it unless you knew going in what each issue was all about. I voted against all of the measures except for the one that boosted civil service credit for veterans with disabilities. The most discussed constitutional amendment was the one allowing up to seven new all-option casino gambling operations in New York in addition to the already established Indian casinos located upstate. My main problem with the measure was the ridiculously deceptive ballot language used to describe the proposal. It was a dupe. A hoodwink. And it worked. The measure passed easily.
Later, on election day, I noticed what were called “mock election” booths set up at the pedestrian plaza in the center of my neighborhood. Those unable to register to vote in this country because of unresolved residency issues were allowed to cast paper ballots that carried no weight in the counting, but allowed the disenfranchised to experience the thrill of making a choice.
To me, the most interesting and important general election decision made outside NYC this year was settled in the small municipality that includes Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Voters in the City of SeaTac approved a “citizen’s initiative” to establish a $15 per hour minimum wage for some 6300 airport and hotel workers. The measure was inspired by the realization that a crucial core of physically-difficult airport jobs had devolved into ones that were paying under $10 per hour. A 2005 effort by Alaska Airlines to replace its own baggage handlers with low-paid third-party vendor employees was among the moves that produced degradation of what were once reliable middle-class jobs with a future. The people of SeaTac have reacted with a bold response that hopefully will serve as a wake-up call to corporate entities more interested in fat bottom lines than workforce cultures that embrace well-being and middle-class living.
-The Associated Press account of Sunday’s Knicks loss at home to Minnesota included the following sentence: “(Carmelo) Anthony drew loud boos in the first half while appearing to be standing still on defense.”