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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.
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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.
ASSOCIATED PRESSShe wound up at a rooming house and soon got her first job as a groom.
"It just reawakened all of the childhood memories and wants and dreams, and loving animals and wanting to be around horses,'' Harris says. "I wasn't thinking (about being a) rider at the time. I was just thinking, 'I don't care if I have to pick up their (manure), I just want to be around them.''
She did, in fact, clean the stalls. And she got fired three days into one of her first jobs because she wasn't fast enough.
She felt humiliated, but she laughs about it now: "I'm not even good enough to pick up (manure). Where do you go from there? Everything must be upward from there.''
She kept going from assignment to assignment, at times finding herself homeless again.
She was working at Ocala Breeders' Sales Company when a guy told her he started riding at 37 and won his first race at 42. That convinced her she could do it, too.
So she learned the skills, and in 2005 decided she was ready to race. She had seen an ad for a jockey at Marquis Downs in Saskatchewan, Canada, and headed north.
When she got to the border at North Portal, N.D., Harris found out her sponsor had not filed all the paperwork needed to work in Canada and that she had to go to the American consulate in Detroit. She says it would have cost $3,000 to $5,000 get a work visa, far more than the $80 she had in her pocket.
"Now, I've hit another wall,'' she says. "Maybe this isn't a good idea. It's causing me more stress than happiness.''
She wanted to turn to her father in Virginia, but she didn't want to tell him she was stuck again. Instead, she drove about nine hours to Canterbury Park near Minneapolis - the next closest track - only to find the office was closed for two days.
Her spirit was broken and Harris needed to fix it.
A convert to Buddhism, she knew of a temple in Chicago and figured she had enough gas and money to get there. A woman at the front desk mentioned that Arlington Park was about 20 minutes away.
The tracks in Chicago are among the most competitive in the nation, not an easy area for a female jockey in her late 30s looking for a start.
Mounts were hard to come by, and getting her license to race was a long, trying process.
She finally had her first pro race at Arlington in August, but she was still having trouble finding rides. And she was getting discouraged.
Harris caught a break at Hawthorne in early November, when trainer Charlie Bettis put her on Wildwood Pegasus - a horse with arthritic knees that other jockeys feared. They finished third that day, and Bettis kept her in the saddle.
Wildwood Pegasus won his next start on Dec. 1., giving Harris her first win, and they took first again a few weeks later.
"Everybody deserves a second chance in life,'' says Janell Bettis, Charlie's wife and assistant trainer. "A lot of people get fifth, sixth chances.''
And Harris is trying to make the most of hers.
In the past, she thought about killing herself but didn't act on it because of her religious beliefs. "It's just a basic tenet: You don't take the life of yourself or someone else,'' Harris says. "Otherwise, I would have put myself out of my misery a long time ago.''
Now, there's happiness.
The horses give her the focus and stability she needs, and the last year has "been beautiful.''
She has an apartment in the city, although she often stays at the track. Her relationships with her children are stronger than she would have imagined not too long ago. The two oldest live with their father in Ireland, while 14-year-old Toshi has been with Edward Sr. for about 12 years.
At times, Sylvia went months without contacting her parents. She still hasn't seen her mother in a few years, though they plan to get together soon.
"My faith in her never wavered,'' Evaliene says from her home in Simi Valley, Calif. "I figured it would take longer for her to get to a place where she could take care of herself.''
Sylvia Harris is doing that, finally. And she feels like a winner.
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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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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Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
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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