DIFFERENT RIDING STYLES BREED SIMILAR SUCCESS.Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Horse Racing horse racing, trials of speed involving two or more horses. It includes races among harnessed horses with one of two particular gaits, among saddled Thoroughbreds (or, less frequently, quarterhorses) on a flat track, or among saddled horses over a turf course with ARCADIA - At Santa Anita Santa Anita may refer to:
Football had ``Mr. Inside'' and ``Mr. Outside.'' Baseball has fastball pitchers and curveball pitchers. Basketball has jump-shooters and post players. Horse racing has Patrick Valenzuela and Garrett Gomez. Valenzuela is the king of the front-runners. His biggest victories in2005 all came with horses firing close to the pace - Lava Man Lava Man (foaled on March 20, 2001) is a dark bay gelded thoroughbred race horse by Slew City Slew (Seattle Slew) out of L'il Ms. Leonard (Nostalgia's Star) who rose from the lowest levels of claiming races to become regarded by many racing fans and members of the racing media as a , Tarlow,Dream of Summer, Your Tent or Mine. And of his meet-high 33 winners through Sunday, 19 were first or second throughout the race, while only three rallied from sixth or worse. Gomez is the master of the sit-and-swoop approach. The triumphs thatrevived his career last year were come-from-behinders - Stevie Wonderboy Stevie Wonderboy (foaled 2003 in Kentucky) is a retired Thoroughbred race horse. Competing in 2005, his performances that year, capped off by a win in the fall's Breeders' Cup Juvenile, earned him the Eclipse Award for Outstanding 2-Year-Old Male Horse. , Borrego, Purge, Taste of Paradise, Artie Schiller. And of his 33 winners through the weekend, 17 rallied from sixth or worse, while only six were first or second all the way around the track. Gomez took more than a month to record his first wire-to-wire victory at Santa Anita with Smoke Dreams in Sunday's nightcap night·cap n. 1. A usually alcoholic drink taken just before bedtime. 2. Sports & Games The last event in a day's competition, especially the final game in a baseball double-header. 3. . Valenzuela said Gomez reminds him of Hall of Famer Eddie Delahoussaye. ``I could always hear Eddie coming in the stretch. He went (grunting), 'Hah! Hah! Hah!' '' Valenzuela said. ``Garrett just doesn't make as much noise as Eddie did.'' Said Gomez: ``I want horses to finish strong. They don't pay us at the half-mile pole.'' In Saturday's $300,000 Strub Stakes, Valenzuela rides High Limit, a habitual speedster speed·ster n. 1. One who drives very fast. 2. A fast car. , while Gomez takes over from Valenzuela aboard Canteen, a winner from on and off the pace. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. which one will be in front at the finish, but the form is pretty clear on the first half-mile. --Giacomo's return: A lot of losing bettors - and that wasalmost all of them - thought Giacomo's victory at 50-1 odds in the 2005Kentucky Derby was a fluke. Trainer John Shirreffs disagrees. ``Twenty horses did line up in the gate, and I think they all had anequal opportunity (to win),'' Shirreffs said this week. ``I think they (Derby bettors) kind of discarded the West Coast horses.'' But like any horse with two victories in a 10-race career, Giacomo has something to prove as begins his 4-year-old season in the Strub, the gray colt's first start since he underwent bone-chip surgery after finishing seventh in the Belmont Stakes. --Sign of the Apocalypse No. 38,964: Such outrage over the sale of sponsorship for the Kentucky Derby, making the official name of the May 6 race ``The Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands.'' What's the surprise here? That Churchill Downs is a money-grubbing corporation? That thoroughbred racing is not a bastion of monastic austerity? That the proprietor of Taco Bell views connoisseurs of horseflesh horse·flesh n. 1. The flesh of a horse. 2. Horses considered as a group, especially for driving, riding, or racing. horseflesh Noun 1. as potential customers? If the battle to preserve dignity in sports is being fought at the gates At the Gates are a Swedish melodic death metal band. They are one of the forebears of the Gothenburg sound of heavy metal along with other bands of the Gothenburg metal scene like Dark Tranquillity and In Flames. of Churchill Downs, it's already lost. --Who's No. 1? Oddsmakers have been calling Stevie Wonderboy the early Kentucky Derby favorite. The public disagrees. In the first round of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager last weekend, bettors made First Samurai a 7-1 favorite among 23 individuals listed, with Stevie Wonderboy 8-1 and six horses between 14-1 and 19-1. First Samurai finished third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile The Breeders' Cup Juvenile is a Thoroughbred horse race for 2-year-old colts and geldings raced on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the Breeders' Cup. , 3 1/4 lengths behind winner Stevie Wonderboy. As usual, ``all others'' was the fans' top pick at 3-1 odds. CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: Patrick Valenzuela is tied for meet wins at Santa Anita with 33 this season. Andy Lyons/Getty Images Box: BY KEVIN MODESTI |
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