NEWS
Fire and rain in the Widener
Posted: Saturday, March 25, 2000
Blazing Sword declared winner after Lemon Drop Kid is disqualified for interference
It was pouring down rain as trainer Flint "Scotty" Schulhofer stood under the eaves of Gulfstream Park's grandstand on March 18, looking through sheets of precipitation at two words illuminated on the infield tote board. "Inquiry." "Objection."
Widener H. (G3)
Hialeah Park, March 18, $194,000, 11/8 miles, sloppy, 1:51.73
1-BLAZING SWORD, g. 6, Sword Dance (Ire)-Demetroula, by Singular.
2-With Anticipation, g. 5, Relaunch-Fran's Valentine, by Saros (GB).
3-Karly's Harley, g. 4, Harlan-Impish, by Majestic Prince.
"Ridiculous," Schulhofer fumed.
Just minutes earlier, Jeanne Vance's Belmont (G1) and Travers Stakes (G1) winner Lemon Drop Kid had carried jockey Jose Santos across the finish line first in the $194,000 Widener Handicap (G3) on the opening weekend of the Hialeah-at-Gulfstream meet. But just above the eighth pole, Lemon Drop Kid propped, ducked inside, and forced jockey Edgar Prado to sharply steady the stubborn longshot Karly's Harley.
The rain got heavier, the wait grew longer, and Schulhofer was surrendering.
"They'll probably take him down. ... Why don't they just take him down?" said a disgusted Schulhofer. "He was much the best horse no matter what they decide."
Lemon Drop Kid was indeed the best of this four-horse field-the best of a field that had lost Donn Handicap (G1) winner Stephen Got Even the previous day to a foot bruise-although he was racing over track conditions he detests. But some ten minutes after Lemon Drop Kid crossed the finish line, covering 1 1/8 miles over the slop in 1:51.73, he was disqualified from first to last in his four-year-old debut.
Making his first start since finishing sixth in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Gulfstream on November 6, Lemon Drop Kid and Santos were carried wide around the first turn and raced three wide down the backstretch while With Anticipation set fractions of :23.49, :47.80, and 1:12.02. But midway around the final turn, as With Anticipation backed off the lead and Karly's Harley moved to the front along the rail, Lemon Drop Kid made a big move and appeared as though he would gallop past the new leader. But Karly's Harley was game, and that was when the problem occurred.
Just as the leaders were approaching the eighth pole, Lemon Drop Kid "propped with me in the stretch. And when a horse does that, they usually go in a step," Santos said.
That step forced Prado to steady Karly's Harley.
"I grabbed hold of him at once and pulled him off (Karly's Harley)," Santos said. "I was a half-length in front of him. There's no reason to take the horse down."
But according to state steward Walter Blum, the margin was not what was in question; the impact of the incident on the race was.
"(Lemon Drop Kid) propped and ducked inside on (Karly's Harley)," Blum said. "Now that horse (Karly's Harley) may not have beat (Lemon Drop Kid), but the incident might have cost him a position ... might have cost him second or third."
While Schulhofer walked up to the clubhouse, Blazing Sword's trainer, Kathleen O'Connell, stood in the tunnel between the grandstand and clubhouse soaking wet, but very happy.
"I never had a DQ help me that much," she said. "But with all the bad luck he's had, I'll take it anyway I can."
Blazing Sword was once regarded as a Kentucky Derby (G1) prospect after finishing second behind Pulpit in the 1997 Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2). "Everyone was smelling roses," O'Connell said.
But shortly after the Fountain of Youth, Blazing Sword colicked, then spent six weeks battling laminitis. The Sword Dance (Ire) gelding returned to the races and for a short period was sent to New York and trainer Bill Mott. (The next year, he suffered a broken pelvis in a farm accident, O'Connell said.) Eventually, Blazing Sword was sent back to O'Connell. Blazing Sword has won 9-of-38 starts and $981,360.
Tubrok's Everglades
Trainer Mohammed Moubarak was not happy when rains forced the Everglades Stakes off the turf on Widener day. Moubarak not only knew Buckram Oak Farm's homebred Tubrok's best surface was grass, but Tubrok was to get five pounds from Palm Beach Stakes (G3) winner Mr. Livingston, who was high- weighted at 119.
"Taking the race off the turf left everyone in the dark," Moubarak said.
But out of the shadows emerged Tubrok, who withstood a stretch-long challenge from Teresa and David Palmer's even-money favorite Mr. Livingston to win the Everglades by a neck.
A chestnut son of Rahy purchased at the 1998 Keeneland September yearling sale for $150,000, Tubrok covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:45.90 under Prado. It was the colt's first stakes victory, his third win in nine starts, and his first win on the main track since breaking his maiden last October at Calder Race Course.
Tubrok took the lead after racing second behind a :23.78 opening quarter and posted fractions of :47.95 and 1:12.64. Mr. Livingston, who raced three wide around the first turn and down the backstretch under jockey Shane Sellers, moved to Tubrok around the final turn and, according to Sellers, "even put his head even with (Tubrok) around the quarter pole." But he could not get past Tubrok.
Encouraging opening, discouraging ruling
It was one of those good news, bad news kind of days for Hialeah executives when they opened their spring meet at Gulfstream on March 17.
On-track handle was up $549,101 compared with $272,986 last year, and total handle more than doubled to nearly $4.7-million. Hialeah officials are projecting a 20% bump in overall handle during the meet.
But Florida's Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering pulled the plug on Hialeah's request to simulcast its races back to Hialeah and to keep its reduced tax rate.
In a letter to Hialeah's vice president and general manager, John Van Lindt, dated March 16, Paul Kirsch, the division's director, said Hialeah would have to pay the division a 4.4% rate on live races as opposed to the 0.2% it requested. The decision could cost Hialeah in excess of $3.5-million. Kirsch also wrote that the tax rate-a penalty written into state statutes to prevent anyone from overlapping racing dates-would also apply to Gulfstream, which on March 16 concluded its meet with a 2% tax rate.
Gulfstream President and General Manager David Romanik dismissed Kirsch's ruling, arguing that the intent of the contract between Hialeah and Gulfstream was that all tax penalties be the expense of the Hialeah meet. "I think legislators will relieve us of that obligation," Romanik said.
PINK FLAMINGOS -Track officials met on March 17 and discussed the feasibility of running entire programs of turf races on Hialeah's course and simulcasting them back to Gulfstream. Romanik said discussions have centered on running the turf programs once a week, possibly Wednesdays or Fridays. "We'd need at least two weeks' notice before we did it, two sets of cameras," Romanik said. "It's something I'm told (Hialeah officials) are interested in, and I think it would be a great boost to handle and help horsemen who came down here and were waiting to run their maidens across the turf at Hialeah." John Brunetti Sr., owner and chairman of the board of Hialeah, said he was open to the idea. "As far as aesthetics, it would be nice to run the races at Hialeah," Brunetti said. "As far as business, I'd like to run them (at Gulfstream). I think we're going to have to see how (Gulfstream's) turf course recovers the next week or so." ... Dogwood Stable's undefeated Swale Stakes (G3) winner Trippi will probably make his next start in the Flamingo Stakes (G3) on April 8.
Dave Joseph is the Turf writer of the Fort Lauderdale News/Sun-Sentinel.
