How Good is Vizard?
After the outstanding win of Vizard in the Listed Beaufine Stakes at Belmont on Saturday the question remains, how good is he?
"I'll tell you, he's a very, very, very good horse." A delighted George Daly said following the win.
The son of Magic Of Money made it his ninth win from his past ten starts, and he remains unbeaten at the 1000m journey.
"Even though he is unbeaten at 1000m, I still firmly believe he is a much better 1200m horse." Daly added.
After settling well back during running for Paul Harvey, the Liver Chestnut was jog trotting on the corner and once he was pulled of the heels of the runners in front of him, he let down with a withering burst to score the easiest of victories, recording 33.68 for his final 600m sectional.
The four-year-old gelding's next assignment will be in a fortnight's time when he will line up in the Belmont Newmarket.
"He will definitely be nominated for the Belmont Newmarket, its a1200m race. Perfect!" A smiling George Daly commented.
It was the first winner for Paul Harvey on the program and he has pulled one back on William Pike bridging the gap back down to two wins.
The runner up So Secret performed well as he always does, but he is now probably looking for a race over an increased distance.
Numbers: 2-3-5-9-7 Time: 58.60 (33.68) Margins: 1 x 1 3/4 x Neck
(c) The Virtual Form Guide
Gambling on Horses and Padding Your Bankroll
National horse racing handicapper Michael Dempsey will attempt to pad his bankroll and yours with his daily column. He will feature at least one Pick 3 or Pick 4 play from a major track along with coverage of major stakes races, longshots, and he will keep you up to date on what is happening on the circuits he covers.
It has not been a pretty week for the horse racing betting industry. Drug positives by top trainers Richard Dutrow, Steve Asmussen, and Larry Jones made the news. Jockey Jeremy Rose was suspended for six months for abusing a horse he rode with his whip.
Hopefully it is back to the races on Saturday. There is plenty of stakes action from coast to coast.
At Hollywood Park on Saturday, there is an eleven race card with four stakes on the menu.
The highlight of the day is the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup (G1). The race drew a field of ten older horses that will go 1 1/4 miles.
Heatseeker is the 123 pound highlight in the race and the likely favorite. Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer and ridden on Saturday by Rafael Bejarano, the five year old is coming off a impressive win in the Californian Stakes (G2) at Hollywood Park on May 31.
He turned the tables on Tiago, who got the best of him two back in the Oaklawn Handicap (G2). Tiago, who comes into the race with four straight triple digit Beyers, will again be ridden by Mike Smith.
The field also included Pimlico Special (G1) winner Student Council and multiple stakes winners Go Between, Big Booster, and McCann's Mohave.
The stakes action kicks off in the fourth race where a field of eight two year old fillies will go to the post in the $100,000 Landaluce Stakes. The fifth race is the $250,000 American Invitational Handicap (G2), which also drew a field of eight.
The race preceding the Gold Cup is the $150,000 A Gleam Invitational Handicap (G2). A field of eleven fillies and mares will go seven furlongs.
Belmont Park offers a pair of Grade 1 stakes on Saturday.
The $250,000 Mother Goose Stakes (G1) drew just a field of four three year old fillies. Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Proud Spell will go off as the favorite.
The Larry Jones trainee has won 5 of 8 career starts with earnings of $1,290,110. The filly will be ridden by Gabriel Saez, who has been on board for all of her starts.
She will face recent first level allowance winners Hamsa and Music Note, and Never Retreat, who was third in the Susans Girls Stakes in her most recent start on June 14 at Delaware Park.
The $400,000 Suburban Handicap (G1) is a more attractive betting race, drawing a field of eight runners in the handicap division.
A.P. Arrow is the class of the field, which does not include a Grade 1 winner. The Todd Pletcher trainee is a Grade 2 winner, taking the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs last fall.
In his most recent start he was fourth in the Dubai World Cup (G1), 8 3/4 lengths behind the winner Curlin.
The six year old has tried Grade 1 company six times but this may be the easiest field he has faced and his best opportunity to break through.
Among his main foes on Saturday will be Solar Flare, who beat Alw-3 optional claimers in his U.S. debut after shipping in from Argentina, and Merchant Marine, the recent winner of the $75,000 Yankee Victor.
Also on the Belmont card is the $75,000 Elmont Stakes, which goes off as the third race. A field of eight New York breds will go one mile on turf.
I Lost My Choo, who most recently was third in the Sands Point Stakes (G2) will appreciate the switch to state breds. She is trained by Phil Serpe and will be ridden by Edgar Prado.
The feature at Churchill Downs is a good betting race. The $100,000 Debutante Stakes (G3) drew a field of ten two year old fillies.
Nine of the fillies are coming off maiden wins. The lone exception is the 5/2 morning line favorite Garden District, who was second last out in the Kentucky Stakes (G3) on May 1 in her first start after breaking her maiden in her debut.
Let's hope we can get through the weekend with the focus being on racing and betting instead of the ugly side of the sport.
(c) 1994-2008 BetUS
Big Brown's trainer hit with suspension
Rick Dutrow is in trouble again.
The outspoken trainer of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown is facing a 15-day suspension by Kentucky racing officials after another horse he trains exceeded the allowable limit for a drug that enables horses to breathe easier while exercising.
Two separate drug tests on 8-year-old gelding Salute the Count revealed the horse had twice the allowable limit of Clenbuterol in his system after finishing second in the Aegon Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs on May 2, said John Veitch, chief state steward of the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority.
Clenbuterol, considered a Class B drug by the KHRA, is often used by humans who suffer from asthma. The drug, which Veitch said contains some steroidal properties but is not considered a steroid, is sometimes used by trainers because of its ability to increase a horse's lung capacity.
"It's a respiratory enhancer," Veitch said. "It's become quite popular in racing medication because it's used to train on."
(c) 1995-2008 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Big Brown Gambling Odds Rising Heading Into Belmont Stakes
Big Brown has been virtually unstoppable in the first two legs of the triple crown. He ran away from the field in the Kentucky Derby, and he was just as impressive at the Preakness.
Now, on the eve of the Belmont Stakes, Big Brown finds himself in a tough position. His only perceived challenger in the race was held out of a practice run on Friday morning.
Trainers for Casino Drive claim that the horse will run on Saturday, but others believe it will not matter whether he runs or not. "I don't think Casino Drive has any chance at all. I think the horse has got issues," said Big Brown's trainer, Rick Dutrow Jr.
His horse was not without issue this week. Just today, Big Brown's cracked hoof was patched with acrylic on Friday. It is not expected to bother Big Brown at race time tomorrow.
The injury to Casino Drive not only gives Big Brown a clear path to the triple crown, but it also has increased his gambling odds. Big Brown was already a huge favorite, but sports books now list him as almost as unbeatable as any horse has ever been.
Only one other horse has ever won the triple crown while undefeated. On Saturday, Big Brown gets the chance to join Seattle Slew in that category.
(c) 2002 - 2008 Casino Gambling Web, Ltd.
Betting on the 2008 Belmont Stakes
Betting on the 2008 Belmont Stakes Saturday? There is still plenty of time to get your bets in.
Big Brown winning the 2008 Belmont Stakes is listed with -350 odds. The real payout comes if he doesn't win. betED would pay out $150 for every $100 wagered if that were to happen.
The online gambling firm was also offering betting odds on Big Brown's margin of victory: 1-5 Lengths was listed as the big -500 favorite and offered little value. However, 6-10 Lengths would pay out $350 for every $100 bet while over 10 lengths would pay $1000 for every $100 bet.
Really the best odds in this weekend's Belmont Stakes can be applied to the other horses running it, specifically Casino Drive at +350 odds for a payout potential of $350 for every $100 bet. There has been much talk of how Casino Drive could actually beat Big Brown. His entry and the potential for Big Brown to win the Triple Crown make this year's Belmont Stakes one to get excited about compared to past years.
Here were your 2008 Belmont Stakes betting odds found at betED.
Big Brown -350
Casino Drive +325
Denis Of Cork +900
Tale Of Ekati +1500
Anak Nakal +3500
Macho Again +2700
Icabad Crane +3500
Mint Lane +4500
(c) Gambling911
Big Brown co-owner linked to mid-'90s securities scandal
Michael Iavarone, who this spring is America's most well- known thoroughbred race horse owner and the majority owner of Big Brown, was suspended by security regulators for unauthorized stock trades during the mid-1990s, documents show.
Iavarone, who is hoping to parlay a Triple Crown victory at the Belmont Stakes on June 7 into a $100 million fund that would own dozens of racehorses, was fined $7,500, censured and suspended from the securities industry for 10 business days in October 1999 for association with New York-based A.R. Baron & Co. Inc., which was the subject of a criminal and civil investigation.
No guilt
According to records, Iavarone -- who did not admit guilt in the case -- was accused of executing "unauthorized transactions which exceeded $22,000 in the accounts of public customers" in July and December 1995 without his customers' knowledge or consent.
Documents show Iavarone was a general securities representative at A.R. Baron from 1993 until July 1996, when it collapsed. The following year the firm was prosecuted by the Manhattan district attorney on charges of cheating thousands of investors out of $75 million. More than a dozen A.R. Baron officials either pleaded guilty or were convicted of wrongdoing in the scheme.
No past troubles
In an initial interview with a Newsday reporter after Big Brown won the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown, Iavarone said he'd never been in trouble for his business activities. When asked this week about his A.R. Baron involvement, Iavarone pointed out that he was not prosecuted criminally, but only faced censure and a fine without admitting guilt. He said he didn't believe disclosure of his past would harm his investment efforts built around his stable.
"It was worth paying $7,500 to put an end to it," Iavarone said. "It was a very small matter that I decided to neither admit nor deny guilt and just take care of."
Iavarone, 37, spoke over the past two weeks with a reporter about many aspects of his career and his hopes for his Garden City firm, International Equine Acquisitions Holdings, Inc.
"A regular guy"
"I never painted myself as rich but just a regular guy from Long Island," said Iavarone, who lives in Holbrook. "I'm a numbers guy with an eye for talent. I've been a combination of good and lucky -- and that's the truth."
IEAH is majority owner of Big Brown, the odds-on favorite in the Belmont Stakes. If the horse wins the June 7 race, he will be the first Triple Crown winner since 1978. IEAH plans to attract 100 high-risk investors looking to own a piece of horse-racing glory. IEAH is also building a $17 million horse care facility across from the racetrack in Elmont.
A preliminary May 2008 draft prospectus for the company provided to Newsday said each investor must put up a minimum $500,000. The draft of the prospectus reviewed by Newsday does not disclose Iavarone's problems at A.R. Baron. Iavarone said that material will be added by the time a final version is offered to investors in about two months. State investment regulators said such a prospectus would ordinarily be required to disclose such information about a main principal in the fund.
Bad for business?
William Jacobson, a Cornell University law professor and director of its Securities Law Clinic, said Iavarone's past financial troubles might hurt his investment efforts. "It certainly wouldn't be helpful," said Jacobson, who has studied A.R. Baron and considers it a notorious "boiler room" operation.
Four years ago, Iavarone, a self-described former Wall Street whiz, faced a number of financial and legal challenges in creating his dream. A review of documents by Newsday shows Iavarone had nearly $600,000 in tax liens and court judgments filed against him in Suffolk County in 2004. They included a $130,075 federal tax lien, a $29,935 a judgment filed by the New York State Tax Commission and a $439,949 judgment in the name of International Equine Acquisitions filed by Keeneland Association, a Kentucky horse auction firm, for five horses that weren't paid for. Records show all three debts were satisfied.
In the interviews, Iavarone said the federal and state tax trouble stemmed from his financial over-commitment in his new horse venture.
"My weakness financially should be perceived as a commitment," he said.
Iavarone said he earned his money working in private financing during the high-tech boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. He said IEAH got off the ground in 2003 with $800,000 he received from a European "high-risk investor" whom he wouldn't name.
About that same year, Iavarone said he ended his association with a now shuttered Great Neck investment firm, Joseph Dillon & Co., which in September 2002 was censured, fined $35,000, and its chief executive banned for two months by securities industry regulators for improper telemarketing methods. Iavarone says he had little involvement with Joseph Dillon, where he was a registered stockbroker, and had no knowledge of any wrongdoing.
"I spent this much time at Joseph Dillon," Iavarone said, holding two fingers barely apart.
Trainer charged
In January 2005, federal investigators charged Iavarone's then trainer, Gregory Martin, of Garden City, with fixing a race at Aqueduct by doping a horse called A One Rocket, which was owned by IEAH. The horse was spiked with a "performance enhancing substance" and won by more than 10 lengths, according to reports.
Federal investigators said Martin was indicted as part of a $200 million illegal gambling operation overseen by three alleged associates of the Gambino crime family, who later pleaded guilty. Martin also pleaded guilty to the horse-fixing scam, was sentenced to two years of probation including six months of home detention, a $2,000 fine, and had his trainer's license revoked by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board. Efforts to reach Martin have been unsuccessful. Iavarone said he was never questioned by authorities in that case.
By 2006, Iavarone's dream of vying for the best thoroughbreds in the world became a reality as his company attracted $25 million in funding, primarily from investors that included former Yankees manager Joe Torre.
Iavarone's firm purchased a three-quarter stake in Big Brown for $2.5 million last fall.
"I have no skeletons in the closet," he said one day this week, looking through the bay window of the Belmont Room at the finish line below. "We're extremely transparent."
(c) 2008, Newsday Inc.
The sport of kings is not very majestic
By Gregg Doyel
CBSSports.com National Columnist
Here's where I need some help. If you love horse racing, maybe you can enlighten me. If you hate horse racing, maybe you can help me even more. Whoever you are, please make sense of this for me:
When that beautiful filly named Eight Belles was lying on the track immediately after the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, clearly in distress and possibly about to be killed, why where tens of thousands of horserace fans still cheering Big Brown's victory?
And minutes later when Eight Belles was indeed put to sleep within feet of where she fell, why was Big Brown's trainer, Rick Dutrow, screaming in ecstasy and hugging people and crowing that his horse was invincible?
I guess what's bothering me, the question that I need answered, is this:
If the people who allegedly love horses and horse racing the most can't be bothered with the destruction of a 3-year-old filly right before their eyes, what kind of sport is this?
I'll tell you what it's not: It's not for me. Show me a spectacle where animals are bred beyond their physical limitations, then raced to the brink of destruction, all for the sake of one rich owner and thousands of gambling gawkers, and I'll show you a pathetic way to spend an afternoon.
Here's a homework assignment for you: Try to find the number of thoroughbreds who have had to be put down -- such a nice way of saying killed -- because of racing injuries suffered in the United States. I couldn't find that statistic, and I've been looking all day. Horse racing doesn't want us to know.
Eight Belles wasn't the first to die, but you knew that. Less than a year after winning the 2006 Kentucky Derby, Barbaro had to be killed -- I'm boycotting the word euthanized and the phrases put down and put to sleep -- because of injuries he had suffered in the 2006 Preakness.
Barbaro wasn't the first, either, but you probably also knew that. Prairie Bayou, the 1993 Preakness winner, broke down later that summer in the Belmont Stakes and had to be killed. One of the horses Prairie Bayou had beaten in the 1993 Preakness, Union City, had to be killed after breaking down during the race.
That came one year after Mr. Brooks was killed after breaking a leg during the 1992 Breeders' Cup. Which came two years after three horses had to be killed during the 1990 Breeders' Cup. Rest in peace, Mr. Nickerson .... and Shaker Knit ... and Go For Wand.
Ruffian, one of the best fillies in horseracing history, had to be killed in 1975 after a gruesome breakdown during a ridiculous "battle of the sexes" match race against Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure. Ruffian tried to keep running after breaking her right front leg, because that's what thoroughbreds do. On the short list of things they love even more than running fast is pleasing their superiors. Ruffian kept running, because that's what she was trained and bred to do, and soon she was galloping on the splintered bone that had broken through the skin. Sand from the track was later found in her bloodstream. If that description seems grotesquely unnecessary, deal with it. This is horse racing. Are we having fun yet?
Anyway, consider yourself fortunate that I didn't go into detail about that 1992 death of Go For Wand. She actually rose from her fall, then lurched several steps on three legs while the fourth leg flapped above its broken ankle. She was killed in front of the grandstand.
This is the sport of kings? Not any king I'm willing to serve. Horses are raced at an early age, weeding out the slow and the weak until 10 or 20 are presented for the Triple Crown races. They run on hard-packed dirt tracks that don't offer enough cushion for the unimaginable pounding a 2,000-pound horse puts on its skinny front legs.
A horse's body is the size of a car, but its ankles aren't much bigger than yours or mine. A veterinarian friend of mine tells me that the trigger for the kind of catastrophic injury that leads to the death of a horse like Eight Belles or Barbaro isn't as horrendous as you'd expect. In fact, the trigger can be cruelly insignificant. Put it this way: A torque that would sprain your ankle is enough to snap a horse's skinny little leg. And once a leg is broken ...
Horse racing people know all this. Presumably they know it better than any of us. Yet it was horse racing people who were cheering as Eight Belles was living out her final moments. On the telecast of the show, veterinarian Larry Bramlage broke the news that Eight Belles had just been killed even as the crowd was clapping and shouting for Big Brown. "They immediately euthanized her," Bramlage said over the happy sound that thousands of cheering people make.
More sickening was the next shot, of Big Brown's trainer, as he hugged various people. "They cannot beat this horse." Rick Dutrow boasted while standing on the same track where Eight Belles had just been killed.
I'm confused, but maybe the answer is as simple this: Horse racing people are becoming immune to a death at the race track. One day earlier, another horse had broken down at Churchill Downs. His name is Chelokee, and for now, is applies. He hasn't been killed, not yet, although he is said to have suffered the same ankle injury that ultimately killed Barbaro.
Ironic, considering Chelokee won the inaugural Barbaro Stakes.
That was May 19, 2007. In the late afternoon. At Pimlico. Where 45 minutes later, a horse named Mending Fences tried to win a race called the Dixie Stakes but broke down before the finish line. With more than 100,000 people watching, track officials dragged a giant green screen onto the track and used it to hide the killing of Mending Fences.
You didn't hide squat.
We know what your nasty little sport is all about.
(c)MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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