Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
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.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
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.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
AP fileLAUREL, Md. - Just a few feet inside the main entrance of Laurel Park on a recent weekday, a five-gallon bucket sat in the middle of the floor, catching a steady stream of droplets from a cracked roof several stories above.
Not that this much mattered, since there were precious few customers to actually see it. In stark contrast to bygone days, Laurel sits virtually empty even as horses race across its track, a testament to how progress and modernization have eluded it. Less than 20 years ago, Laurel and its fellow Maryland Jockey Club track, Pimlico, were perhaps second only to the New York Racing Association tracks along the Eastern seaboard.
Today, however, Laurel is struggling mightily, and the leaky-roof metaphor that Maryland fans once cast with condescension toward the Charles Town Races or Philadelphia Park has boomeranged with a cruel reality. Tracks in several states adjacent to Maryland are flourishing, buoyed by slots revenues that allow them to lure the horses and horsemen who otherwise might be racing in Maryland. While many people in racing are reluctant to call slots a panacea, there can be no doubt that West Virginia, Delaware, and now Pennsylvania -- states with racing programs that once were clearly inferior to what Maryland offered -- are more vibrant and successful than Maryland for reasons directly traceable to their onsite slot machines.
Not that nobody saw it coming. For years, proponents of Maryland racing have warned that they will be overwhelmed by neighboring competition if some form of alternative gaming is not legalized at state tracks. And as time has passed, and the competitive gulf has widened, the straits have become more desperate.
“We are in survival mode,” said Lou Raffetto Jr., the president and chief executive officer of the MJC, which is owned by Magna Entertainment. “It forces one to make moves one normally wouldn’t make.”
The most recent and overt manifestation of that desperation came Jan. 25, when the MJC, citing a financial inability to justify the $500,000 purse, announced it would not be able to run the Grade 1 Pimlico Special on May 18. The Pimlico Special has long been recognized as the second-best race on the circuit, behind only the Preakness, and its cancellation came as a jolting reminder of how far Maryland racing has fallen. Since being revived in 1988 following a 30-year hiatus, the Pimlico Special also was discontinued once before, in 2002, for essentially the same reasons as this year.
“Our horsemen don’t care that much about the Pimlico Special since it’s usually an out-of-town horse that wins it,” said Raffetto. “But they do understand the prestige it brings to our program. Still, knowing the shortfalls we face, we couldn’t sit back and cut our overnight races while using $500,000 for one race.”
Raffetto said the MJC has been using reserve funds totaling nearly $8 million to overpay purses during the 2006-07 racing seasons just to keep overnight purse levels at roughly $200,000 per day.
“Come 2008, without slots or some sort of subsidy, our landscape will change even more dramatically,” he said. “We cannot maintain that $200,000 level - at least not for anywhere close to the 184 days a year we’ve been running - because there simply is no more money. This is not some hollow threat.”
Counting stakes, the average per-day purse payout over 184 race dates in 2006 at Laurel and Pimlico was almost $240,000, compared with about $212,000 when 219 dates were run in 2001. Raffetto said these levels are unsatisfactory, especially when compared with the sharp purse increases that occurred in Delaware and West Virginia, and what is expected for Pennsylvania, when their tracks were remade into racinos.
The prospect of Maryland eventually getting slots at state racetracks hinges on a complex set of political factors, and debate about the need for slots is arguably the state’s hottest political potato. Ultimately, it could be the state’s own dire financial plight that will finally lead to the approval of slots by the state legislature: Maryland faces a $1.8 billion budgetary deficit in 2008.
Maryland racing and the state itself “are both like ships sinking,” said Raffetto. “We both know we have huge financial problems - and once you’re under water, it’s that much harder to get back to the surface. Right now is the time to start thinking about a solution. We know that, and most of the legislators know it, too.”
Raffetto said he strongly believes that a slots bill will be passed by the Maryland legislature next year. “We feel really good that everything will be coming together by this time next year,” he said. “In the meantime, the clock is still ticking.”
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.
DAILY RACING FORM |
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The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
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 | Derby celebs Plenty of stars from the entertainment and sports world attend the 136th Kentucky Derby. more photos |
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 | Triple Crown winners The horses that have won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in the same year. |
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
The Red Wings have finally started to embrace a record they've been chasing.