SMITH'S LONG RIDE TO 4,000.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 INGLEWOOD - When Mike Smith arrived from the East Coast to make a fresh start in California, he was five victories away from a milestone, and the jockey's new home track was preparing to celebrate it. A thick cardboard placard was printed: ``Mike Smith - 4,000 Career Wins - Congratulations from Hollywood Park Hollywood Park may be several places:
That was three weeks ago. Since then, Smith has moved only one win closer to 4,000, and the sign gathers dust as it leans against a filing cabinet in the Hollywood Park publicity office. Thursday afternoon, Smith rode two more losers, leaving him 1 for 38 here and winless in 31 races since his May 11 victory aboard the Roger Stein-trained claiming mare Swiss Miss. The 4,000 mark, of no great consequence by itself, mocks the 35-year-old second-generation jockey who was the nation's leading rider in the mid-1990s and appeared capable of conquering any racing circuit he tried. ``It seems like anytime you're coming up on a milestone, you go into a slump,'' Smith said as cheerfully as possible. ``It's disappointing and it doesn't look good,'' Brian Beach, Smith's agent, said of the slow start. ``But we didn't expect to come here and make a mad rush at winning the Hollywood riding championship.'' Championships used to come easily to Smith, who earned Eclipse Awards in 1993 and 1994, the season he rode Horse of the Year Holy Bull, led the nation's jockeys with 317 victories and $15.9 million in purses and set a North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. record with 66 stakes victories. In 1998, weeks after coming back from a severe shoulder injury suffered in a Florida Derby-day fall at Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino is a racetrack and county-approved racino in Hallandale Beach, Florida, in the United States. During its annual meet, which spans January through March, it is one of the most important venues for horse racing in America. , Smith led the standings at Saratoga when real trouble arrived with a nasty crack one Monday afternoon. A chain-reaction accident caused by an aggressive young rider sent Smith over the turf-course hedge. He landed, as he describes it, ``in a sitting position.'' Though in pain, he got up and walked off the track. ``I just remember thinking, 'I've got tomorrow off, I've got a week left (in the Saratoga season),' '' Smith said Thursday. `` `I'll be back the day after tomorrow.' '' Five months later, he was still sidelined, having fractured his back in several places, narrowly escaping paralysis. At the same time, the emergence of John Velazquez, Jorge Chavez and Edgar Prado Edgar S. Prado (born June 12, 1967 in Lima, Peru) is a thoroughbred horse racing jockey. Now a resident of Hollywood, Florida in 2004 Prado became the 19th jockey in thoroughbred racing history to win 5,000 races. was changing the Eastern landscape. Sensing he was slipping to third or fourth on top barns' jockey depth charts, Smith hurried back before he was fit enough to ride full cards. Trainers saw Smith riding light schedules and winning infrequently, and concluded that he wasn't the same since the injury. Horses like Holy Bull, Lure, Inside Information, Sky Beauty, Cherokee Run and 1993 Preakness winner Prairie Bayou Prairie Bayou (1990-1993) was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse owned and bred by Loblolly Stable of Lake Hamilton, Arkansas. Named for a bayou between Little Rock and Hot Springs in Arkansas, he was sired by Little Missouri and out of the mare, Whiffling. were no longer offered. ``I wouldn't complain about my career, though I guess compared to what I was, it's a letdown,'' Smith said. ``But I try not to think of it that way. I try to think of the opportunities I still have. ... I don't think anything's slipped since I got hurt. I think I've done pretty well with (the horses) I've got.'' Talk about bad luck: Smith might have ridden Kentucky Derby Kentucky Derby One of the classic U.S. Thoroughbred horse races. It was established in 1875 and run annually on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs track in Louisville, Ky. With the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, it makes up U.S. racing's coveted Triple Crown. winner Monarchos, but after exercising the colt several times last winter, he wound up assigned to another John Ward-trained 3-year-old, since injured. Smith said he had always planned to move west at some point in a career that began in his native New Mexico when he was 16. The downturn in his business in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Florida and Kentucky, and an amicable divorce from his wife of 13 years, told him this was the right time. The departures of Corey Nakatani to Kentucky and Kent Desormeaux to Japan figured to help Smith break into the notoriously tough local jockey colony. But Nakatani came back and now Desormeaux is planning an early return. Had Smith won a few races in his first week here, trainers might have got in line for the hot new jock. It didn't happen. ``He's working a lot of real good horses in the morning,'' said Beach, who hopes that will pay off in race mounts. ``It's just that the afternoons haven't caught up to the mornings yet.'' Beach faces a Catch-22 - trainers tell him they'll start using Smith once he starts winning. Trainer Simon Bray, who assisted Bill Mott in New York and watched Smith before and after the accident, said he sees no difference. ``He's a top-class rider,'' Bray said before Smith rode a horse for him Thursday. ``What he's accomplished is there in black and white. He deserves every opportunity he gets.'' Smith nearly broke through on Memorial Day when he and Touchoftheblues rallied in the Shoemaker Mile at Hollywood Park, only to finish a neck behind Irish Prize and Gary Stevens. Smith said he'll be patient. This week, he put down a $10,000 deposit on a rental home at Del Mar, guaranteeing he'll stay in California at least through the summer to try to make a go of it. Shorter term, he has a month and a half to win four races and knock the dust off that ``4,000'' placard. --Nine for Belmont: It appears Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos and Preakness winner Point Given will have seven horses' company in their rubber game at the Belmont Stakes a week from Saturday. Also on the ``probables'' list for the 1 1/2-mile Belmont are A P Valentine A P Valentine (foaled February 14, 1998) is a retired Grade I-winning Thoroughbred racehorse sired by A.P. Indy out of an Alydar mare, Twenty Eight Carat. Two-year-old campaign , Balto Star, Buckle Down Ben, Dollar Bill, Dr Greenfield, Invisible Ink and Thunder Blitz. Each ran in the Derby, the Preakness or both, except for D. Wayne Lukas-trained Buckle Down Ben and Team Valor-owned DrGreenfield. OUT OF THE GATE HOLLYWOOD PARK LEADERS (Through Wednesday) Jockey Wins Laffit Pincay 34 Alex Solis 32 Tyler Baze 30 Martin Pedroza 20 Chris McCarron 19 Trainer Wins Jack Carava 13 Bob Baffert 12 Richard Mandella 12 Clifford Sise 9 Neil Drysdale 9 THE STAKES SCHEDULE Hollywood Park Saturday --$100,000 Desert Stormer Stormer may refer to:
Sunday --$250,000 Milady Handicap, fillies and mares 3 and up, 1 1/16 miles. Belmont Park Saturday --$150,000 Sheepshead Bay Handicap The Sheepshead Bay Handicap is an American thoroughbred horse race held annually at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. The race is open to fillies and mares, age three and up, who are willing to race the one and three-eighths miles on the turf. , fillies and mares 3 and up, 1 3/8 miles on turf. Suffolk Downs Saturday --$500,000 Massachusetts Handicap, 3-year-olds and up, 1 1/8 miles. PINCAY WATCH Laffit Pincay entered Thursday's races with a sensational winning percentage of 29.6 at Hollywood Park, and more than twice as many first- place finishes (34) as seconds (15). The last leading rider at the track's spring-summer meet to hit the 30 percent mark was Pincay himself in 1974 (148 of 478, 31 percent). John Longden established the highest win percentage by a Hollywood Park leader (33.9 percent) in 1948. Pincay's record career-victories total is 9,152. MILEPOSTS Latest estimates from Kentucky show as much as 5 percent of this year's foal foal a junior horse from birth to one year. May be filly foal, colt foal. foal ataxia see enzootic equine incoordination. crop and 29 percent of the 2002 crop lost to the outbreak of stillbirths and spontaneous abortions. Scientists have pinpointed cyanide from the leaves of cherry trees and ingested in·gest tr.v. in·gest·ed, in·gest·ing, in·gests 1. To take into the body by the mouth for digestion or absorption. See Synonyms at eat. 2. by pregnant mares as the most likely cause, and are trying to understand why the problem blew up this spring. ... Dig For It set a Hollywood Park record for the infrequently run distance of 1 3/16 miles when the 6-year-old won Wednesday's feature race in 1:54 4/5 under Alex Solis. Shorten Sail had held the record (1:55 1/5, 1998). ... Tyler Baze, David Flores Flores, town, Guatemala Flores (flōrəs), town (1990 est. pop. 2,200), capital of Petén department, N Guatemala. Flores was built on an island in the southern part of Lake Petén Itzá and on the site of the and Pincay were the California riders selected to compete in the June 22 NTRA NTRA National Thoroughbred Racing Association NTRA National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (Egypt) NTRA National Training Reform Agenda NTRA Nano Technology Research Association (Korea) All-Star Jockey Championship at Lone Star Park Lone Star Park is a horse racing track located in Grand Prairie, Texas. History Lone Star Park opened in 1997. The track offers separate meets for Thoroughbred racing and Quarter Horse racing. In October of 2002, Magna Entertainment Corp. . ... Baze's triple Wednesday was his first at Hollywood Park.... Kent Desormeaux, riding in Japan during the Hollywood Park meet, told the Daily Racing Form The Daily Racing Form, LLC (DRF) is a broadsheet newspaper founded in 1894 in Chicago, Illinois by Frank Brunell. The paper publishes the past performances of race horses as a statistical service for bettors on horse racing in the United States. he'll come home June 24, three weeks earlier than originally stated. ... The 2000 Hollywood Gold Cup The Hollywood Gold Cup is a Grade I stakes race for thoroughbred horses inaugurated in 1938 at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California. It was run as a handicap race until 1997 when it was switched to weight-for-age conditions. winner, Early Pioneer, and Californian winner, Big Ten, are scheduled to return from injuries in the $75,000 Ack Ack Stakes at 7 1/2 furlongs on Wednesday. ... Jerry Bailey was named to ride Aptitude in the June 10 Californian. ... CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. will televise tel·e·vise tr. & intr.v. tel·e·vised, tel·e·vis·ing, tel·e·vis·es To broadcast or be broadcast by television. [Back-formation from television. 11 stakes races nationally in June and July, including Hollywood Park's Californian and July 1 Hollywood Gold Cup, in a series meant to replace the ``NTRA Champions on Fox'' of 1999 and 2000. ... Jockey Marlon St. Julien's victory aboard My Little Runaway last Saturday at Churchill Downs ended his losing streak at 139 mounts. Last year, St. Julien earned the distinction of being the first African-American since 1921 to ride in the Kentucky Derby, finishing sixth aboard longshot Curule cu·rule adj. Privileged to sit in a curule chair; of superior rank. [Latin cur . ... Hall of Fame retired jockey Julie Krone and Eclipse Award-winning Daily Racing Form columnist Jay Hovdey were married Sunday in Santa Monica. - Kevin Modesti CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: no caption (Laffit Pincay) Box: OUT OF THE GATE (see text) |
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