Is there TVG in Prison?  Curlin Set to race July 12 and then it’s “Au Revoir”

Ok, so they’re going to tee it up again. Mulligan made his way into the fen-phen mail fraud case of Bill Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr., co-owners of Curlin. The judge declared a mistrial and the prosecution said that they would re-try the case. It’s back to jail for the “defendant duo,” no chance of seeing their 2007 Horse of the Year race on turf in his anticipated return to action, July 12.

It’s looking more and more like the Man O’ War Stakes at Belmont Park, not the Arlington Handicap in Chicago. The Blood-Horse reported this morning that management in the minority interest of Curlin and other horses owned by the jailbirds has been transferred to the control of a court-appointed receiver, thus paving the way for the horse to race anywhere. After the July 12 race, it’s rumored Curlin may try the Prix Foy at Longchamp in September as a prep for his October 5 Arc run.

Curlin Co-Owners Risk Guilty Verdict by Rejecting Mistrial

The fen-phen mail fraud case against attorneys Bill Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr., which caused the 20 percent co-owners of 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin to miss the horse’s last few races because they’ve been living behind bars, keeps getting goofier and goofier.

After a seven-week trial and a week of jury deliberation that’s resulted in a stalemate, a Federal Court in Covington, Kentucky was about to accept a mistrial, but the defense asked the judge to instruct the jury back into deliberation, thereby risking a conviction. The judge said it was the first time the defense had ever objected to the declaration of a mistrial in his courtroom.

No Limit Plays - Hollywood Park

Race 2) Waive Liability, Western Comment, and Self Insured are all on Equiform pattern lines at big morning line prices.

Race 3) Let’spickupthepace (still a maiden) is on New Pace Top for Magic Mike Mitchell

Race 6) Ribald off the New Pace Top

Race 9) Raw Silk and Magical Fantasy both on Turf Decline Lines

Cary at Hollywood Park, June 14

No Limit Plays – Hollywood Park



Race 4) MOVES LIKE A CAT comes off a New Pace Top for Sadler and drops a notch to $32,000



Race 5) Both WHATWILLBEWILLBE and HUNTER CREEK exit New Pace Tops. Bet both to win if double digit odds and use Beau Smoke and Seven Point One in gimmicks. DO NOT use Tempting Treasures off Double Top..



Race 6) MOOD WINNER off a Turf Decline Line at 6/1 or better.

The Fourth of July: America and Racing at the Crossroads

I'll be spending today with my family, because that's the best part about America--and American holidays--having the freedom to do exactly what you want. Between the hot dogs and hamburgers, I'll be watching the races on cable television. I'll visit Belmont Park tomorrow. Television is fine, but live racing is much, much better.

In case you missed the memo, since the conclusion of this year's Kentucky Derby, and again after the Blmont Stakes, our favorite sport has been placed at a crossroads, one it no longer can ignore. And, if you've lived in this country for the past eight years, you might have noticed that the same thing can be said about America.

This is the final Fourth of July celebration before the most important American election since the mid-nineteenth century. So, I will take a part of this day to reflect on what it means to love the country that's given us all so much, what the framers had in mind when they signed the best of our freedoms into law 212 years ago today.

The following is what patriotism means to one of my fellow citizens, one who happens to be running for the highest office in the land. I promise you only that the sentiments are non-partisan. To you, and your family, a safe and Happy Fourth!

"On a spring morning in April of 1775, a simple band of colonists – farmers and merchants, blacksmiths and printers, men and boys – left their homes and families in Lexington and Concord to take up arms against the tyranny of an Empire. The odds against them were long and the risks enormous – for even if they survived the battle, any ultimate failure would bring charges of treason, and death by hanging.

"And yet they took that chance. They did so not on behalf of a particular tribe or lineage, but on behalf of a larger idea. The idea of liberty. The idea of God-given, inalienable rights. And with the first shot of that fateful day – a shot heard round the world – the American Revolution, and America's experiment with democracy, began.

Canadian Racing: Same Problems, Different Latitude

I first met Stanley Sadinsky at Saratoga Race Course when he was the chairman of the Ontario Gaming and Lottery Corporation. He introduced himself one morning at the conclusion of a handicapping seminar I was hosting for the Daily Racing Form at Siro’s, a couple of furlongs from the track’s clubhouse entrance.

The first thing that jumped out was his exuberance and love of the game in all its aspects, especially the intellectual challenge of handicapping. I never took him up on his invitation to visit Woodbine--my bad--and that seems too bad now because the atmosphere at racetracks in Ontario is about the same as it is at American venues.

Sadinsky was commissioned to form a group, the Sadinsky Expert Panel, to study the reasons why the racing industry in the province is in serious jeopardy. The only surprise found within the 80-page report was how similar Canada’s problems are to ours, from the issues themselves to the prevailing attitudes and practices within the 200-year-old industry that has helped fuel its decline.

Bring Back 1 & 1A

Between excoriating several trainers (dead and alive) and running a horse that was put down after breaking his pelvis at Monmouth Park, Rick Dutrow made a bet on Rising Moon, a horse he ran in the Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park. Rising Moon, at 4-1, finished third. Dutrow won the Suburban with Frost Giant, at 40-1 and uncoupled because he and Rising Moon have different owners. Dutrow had nary a sou on Frost Giant.

Is there something wrong with this picture?

I put the question to Pete Pedersen, who has retired from the stewards' stand but is still active as a racing sage.

"From a public relations standpoint, I think I'd need to examine it," Pedersen said. "Sure, I think if I were still a steward, I'd ask Dutrow about it."

Travels with Harry

The last time I saw Harry Aleo was in mid-May. He and his trainer, Greg Gilchrist, were running a filly called Wild Promises in the Mother's Day Handicap at Bay Meadows.

Wild Promises won the race, and afterwards, as we watched a replay on a TV next to the indoor paddock at the track, I asked Aleo about the day last fall when the horse ran for an $80,000 claiming price at Hollywood Park.