Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
Reuters
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Jerry Bailey was about to board the final mount of his career in the paddock Saturday when the horse kicked him in the hip.
“Guess I went out with a bang,” Bailey said.
The jockey headed into retirement with a sore side and a rueful smile following a second-place finish in his last race. Bailey’s feisty ride Silver Tree was three-quarters of a length short in a bid for a come-from-behind victory Saturday in the $500,000 Cloverleaf Farms Turf Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
“I hope more people bet to place than to win,” Bailey said.
The race was part of the Sunshine Millions Cup, with four races each at Gulfstream and Santa Anita. Florida-bred horses edged California-breds 37-35.
Bailey’s mounts finished 11th and fourth by a nose in his earlier races. So he concluded his 31-year career with 5,893 victories, the last coming aboard favored filly Shakespearesister in a $33,000 allowance race Friday.
Silver Tree was an odds-on favorite, but Bailey found himself 10th on the rail in the first turn of the 1 1-8-mile turf race. He stayed inside to save ground, found himself briefly blocked, then rallied to second in the stretch, but he couldn’t catch 50-1 choice Miesque’s Approval.
“Not exactly a fairy-tale ending, was it?” said Bill Mott, Silver Tree’s trainer and Bailey’s longtime friend. “But it was close.”
Hours before his final race, Bailey said he would approach it like the Kentucky Derby, which he won twice. And so the loss hurt — just like his right hip.
“You’re either a hero or a goat. I guess I’ll go eat hay tonight,” Bailey said. He put his arms around his wife and son as he talked about his final race.
“I think Silver Tree was probably the best horse. But going into a turf race with a lot of speed, I knew it would probably set up that way. It didn’t open up in time for me. I played the hand that was dealt me. It just wasn’t enough.”
Perhaps the run-in with Silver Tree before the race was a bad omen. Bailey said it was only the second time he has been kicked in the paddock.
“Just one of those things,” he said. “My hip’s a little sore. Thank God it’s not worse.”
Bailey’s first ride of the day was an allowance race on grass aboard Inducement. The 2-1 choice ran third into the far turn, then faded and finished next to last.
In the Padua Stables Sprint, part of the Sunshine Millions series, Bailey rode 5-1 choice Thor’s Echo into the lead on the turn before the horse weakened in the stretch.
Bailey won only twice in his final week on the job but drew applause from fans every time he passed through the paddock area. He choked up with emotion several times during a 15-minute news conference before the day’s first race.
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“I never really thought I was anything more special than anybody else out here,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate to ride a lot of great horses for a lot of great people. If I wasn’t on those great horses, I wouldn’t have won nearly the times I did.”
Bailey, 48, won a record seven Eclipse Awards as the nation’s best jockey. He was the guest of honor at a party at the track Saturday night, and he smiled and rubbed his sore hip when asked about his retirement plans.
“First, soak in some ice,” he said.
Lava Man won the $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic at Santa Anita. Other winners there were Moscow Burning in the $500,000 Warren’s Thoroughbred Filly and Mare Turf Stakes, Florida-bred Hot Storm in the $300,000 Filly and Mare Sprint, and Da Stoops in the $250,000 in the Sunshine Millions Dash.
At Gulfstream, California-bred Bordonaro, a 5-year-old gelding, won the $300,000 Padua Stables Sprint. California-bred House of Fortune won the $500,000 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Distaff, and Florida homebred filly Joint Effort won the $250,000 Ocala Stud Oaks.
The first of three pools of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager begins its three-day run on Friday and the bet's opening scenario is very similar to each of its opening pools since the wager was created in 1999.
It's first time that Classic will be broadcast in primetime on Nov. 3.
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
