NEWS
Finish lines: Notes from around the Thoroughbred world
Posted: Wednesday, October 09, 2002
--Arlington Park will celebrate its 75th anniversary on Sunday, culminating with a winner's circle ceremony following the fourth race. Prestigious racing venues and interesting personalities who are part of the history of Arlington Park will be the focus of the presentation. In addition, anyone who is 75 years of age will be admitted to the track free of charge, and the 75th guest through the turnstiles on Sunday will receive a two-night stay at the Chicago Hilton. Other contests and celebrations will be held throughout the day.
--British scientists conducting a horse genome project at the Animal Health Trust in Suffolk, England, have discovered that all gray Thoroughbreds can be traced back to one gray stallion, Alcock's Arabian, foaled in the 18th century. Using DNA samples donated from a stallion named Paris Match and his progeny, researchers have been able to pinpoint the gene that gives all gray horses their distinctive coat color.
"The gray gene was introduced, we think, just a single time in a horse called Alcock's Arabian in about 1720," Dr. Matthew Binns, head of genetics at the trust, told BBC News, "so all the gray horses you see on the racecourse or on the gallops here at Newmarket have a piece of DNA that descends from that original founder."
Binns explained that the researchers wanted to test the validity of a genetic map using a physical trait that was easy to distinguish, as only approximately 3% of Thoroughbred horses are gray.
"By taking our genetic map and mapping the markers on DNA collected from a large number of progeny from a gray stallion, we were able to map where the gray locus [the position of a particular gene on a chromosome] was on the horse genome; and found it's on horse chromosome 25 in a particular place," Binns said.
--The Kentucky Horseshoeing School located in Mount Eden, Kentucky, has drawn prospective farriers from all ends of the globe; including as far away as New Zealand, Taiwan, and Sweden. Approximately 80 students attend each year, and become educated in biomechanics, anatomy, and work on the forge. They are also taught courses in welding and metal work, as well as learning how to run a small business, the Courier-Journal reports.
The rest of the story can be accessed at
http:// www.newsobserver.com/features/story/1796630p-1800981c.html
--Bally's Las Vegas will host the fourth annual $212,000 Daily Racing Form/National Thoroughbred Racing Association Handicapping Championship for the first time on January 17-18.
The handicapping championship will showcase a series of handicapping tournaments throughout the United States for horse racing fans in their respective markets. Those participants who qualify from each local market will join as a team representing their racetrack or off-track betting facility in Las Vegas. Fifty-one teams of four representing 44 NTRA members (tracks, OTBs, and related Web sites) will compete in the contest.
