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.
AP
ALBANY, N.Y. - A prominent thoroughbred breeder who once owned a Kentucky Derby favorite was charged Friday with cruelty to animals, two days after authorities seized 177 malnourished horses at his Hudson Valley farm.
Ernie Paragallo was charged with 22 counts of violating New York’s Agriculture and Markets law that prohibits torturing or injuring an animal or failing to provide sustenance, New York state police dispatcher Terri Gallagher said.
After Paragallo’s arrest, New York State Racing and Wagering Board chairman John Sabini released a statement saying the board had “immediately terminated his privilege to be involved with thoroughbred racing in New York.”
The 51-year-old Paragallo was arraigned before Coxsackie Town Justice Thomas Fori and sent to the Greene County Jail in lieu of $5,000 cash or $10,000 bond bail.
He did not immediately return a message left on his cell phone after his arrest.
Paragallo, the owner of 1996 Derby favorite and fifth-place finisher Unbridled’s Song, was arrested after driving upstate from his Long Island home to be questioned by investigators about the malnourished horses found Wednesday on his Center Brook farm. The farm is in Greene County, 20 miles south of Albany.
“It wasn’t knowing neglect,” Paragallo told The Associated Press. “Did I try and harm any of those horses? Absolutely not. Did some of them come up skinny? Absolutely. Was it mismanagement? Absolutely. I’m not shying away from it. But I didn’t abuse them.”
State police and animal protection organizations seized the horses at his upstate farm. Veterinarians examined the animals and found all of them to be in varying stages of malnutrition.
The horses remain on the farm under the supervision of the Columbia Greene Humane Society, which has brought in hay and grain for them. Paragallo agreed Friday to transfer ownership of 67 of the horses to the humane society for future adoption.
Ron Perez, president of the humane society, said that in addition to being malnourished, many of the horses were infested with internal and external parasites, suffering from untreated lacerations, and in need of hoof care. He said broodmares were kept in stalls without proper bedding.
“This is a sad situation for the animals,” Perez said. “The way he let them go is absolutely unconscionable.”
Paragallo blamed the horses’ conditions on miscalculations in the amount of feed and hay purchased for the farm over the winter.
“We probably underfed them the amount of feed they were supposed to get,” he said.
Paragallo said he had even more horses, 240 to 250, the previous winter on the 500-acre farm, which has two 83-acre paddocks.
“It’s hard to keep track of every horse when they’re turned out in those big paddocks,” he said.
Paragallo said he hadn’t visited the farm in at least nine months.
Unbridled’s Song won the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and in ’96 won the Florida Derby and the Wood Memorial to earn his status as Kentucky Derby favorite. He also owned Artax, the 1999 Eclipse winner as top sprinter.
Meanwhile, the New York Racing Association revoked Paragallo’s credentials for NYRA’s three tracks — Saratoga, Belmont and Aqueduct, where his daughters’ stable has 40 horses. The move prohibits Paragallo from the tracks’ backstretch and paddock, but not its grandstand or other areas open to patrons.
Paragallo was licensed with the state Racing and Wagering Board as the authorized agent for Paraneck Stable, which he founded but later turned over to his daughters Jennifer and Kristen in 2005, when the state revoked his owner’s license for financial irresponsibility.
NYRA officials said no member of the Paragallo family or current Paraneck employee are allowed to operate the stable. The Paraneck horses currently stabled at Aqueduct’s barns will be allowed to remain at the track. According to the Daily Racing Form, three Paraneck horses set to race at Aqueduct were scratched this week and five others will be scratched between Friday and Wednesday.
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.