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: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
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
CANOVANAS, Puerto Rico - For thoroughbreds in this U.S. Caribbean territory, being fast enough to win, place or show is a matter of life and death. Losers often don't even make it off the racetrack grounds alive.
More than 400 horses, many in perfect health, are killed each year by injection at a clinic behind the Hipodromo Camarero racetrack, said chief veterinarian Jose Garcia. The Associated Press on Friday examined clinic log books that confirmed Garcia's account.
The handwritten logs list the names of the horses, the trainers, the date of execution and the dosages of lethal drugs. Garcia allowed an AP reporter to view the logs but prohibited him from taking notes or photographing the pages.
Unlike on the U.S. mainland, where many former racehorses are retrained for riding or sent to refuges, the animals have few options in Puerto Rico. Owners say caring for and feeding a losing racehorse is too expensive.
"If it doesn't produce, after a while I give it away or I kill it,'' said Arnoldo Maldonado, 60, a businessman who races about five horses a year. "It bothers me, but it has to be done because there is no money to pay for them. ... I'm not going to keep losing.''
The killings also bother veterinarians who carry them out.
While many horses are unsuitable for adoption because of injuries or bad tempers, far more could be rescued than the current few dozen a year, Garcia said.
The veterinarians at the racetrack clinic have an informal system of contacting farms and breeders about a possible home for the animal when a healthy horse comes in to die. But so far there are no programs such as the U.S.-based Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, which rescues horses coming off the track.
The racehorses put to death in Puerto Rico are not being killed because they have suffered a serious injury, like Eight Belles, the filly euthanized after breaking both front ankles in the Kentucky Derby on May 3. Here, even when a second home is available, veterinarians say that some owners want losing horses executed anyway — some to save money, others for revenge.
"You'll get a few owners who get so upset, they just want the horse dead,'' said veterinarian Shakyra Rosario.
She often asks trainers if they have extra space so she doesn't have to kill a healthy horse, and there are Puerto Ricans such as trainer Berti Zequeira who make it their business to rescue the rejects.
Lionel Muller, senior vice president at Hipodromo Camarero, Puerto Rico's only racetrack, said owners generally have the horses killed only as a last resort when they cannot find a suitable second home.
"Most of the horse owners really love the horses. You don't want to get rid of a horse that way,'' he said.
With a stable of about 1,300 horses, the flower-trimmed track on the north coast holds races five days a week. Tourists and other fans cheer from open-air grandstands and a skybox restaurant. About $210 million a year is bet at the Hipodromo and at off-track betting booths.
The U.S. horse racing industry also struggles with unwanted thoroughbreds. AP's efforts to obtain figures were unsuccessful, but advocacy groups say sanctuaries created over the past two decades have dramatically cut the likelihood that a former racer will be executed.
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 Red Wings have finally started to embrace a record they've been chasing.