Backstretch

The Maryland Horsemen's Assistance Fund, which benefits backstretch workers at the state's thoroughbred tracks, will conduct its spring fund-raiser tomorrow at Mt. Washington Tavern. Racing memorabilia will be offered in a live auction at 7 p.m., as well as during a silent auction throughout the evening. Live-auction items include an autographed, framed photo of Lance Armstrong, bronze statuettes and a date with personable jockey Ryan Fogelsonger. Guest bartenders will include jockey Steve "Cowboy" Hamilton and trainer Janice Nini.

The Maryland Jockey Club announced yesterday that the Pimlico Race Course stable area will remain open throughout the winter months. Previously, the MJC indicated that the Pimlico backstretch would close, effective Oct. 31 through early March 2002. The MJC is the only racetrack operator in the United States that simultaneously maintains three complete training and stabling facilities, and provides them free of charge to horsemen throughout the year. Those facilities include Pimlico, Laurel Park and the Bowie Training Center.

Sheri Garcia, a 37-year-old exercise rider who was just days away from realizing a dream of becoming a professional jockey, was killed yesterday while galloping her horse at Pimlico Race Course. Garcia, of Lancaster, Pa., suffered head injuries at about 7:30 a.m. when she struck a pole near the half-mile mark on the backstretch of the Northwest Baltimore track, said Charles Frock, a thoroughbred horse trainer who sometimes employed Garcia. Garcia was taken by ambulance to Sinai Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 8:20 a.m., according to a hospital spokeswoman.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Now that he is here, actually here at Churchill Downs for his first Kentucky Derby, John Tammaro III still is the coolest dude on the backstretch."

Raleigh Burroughs is a funny man, short and bespectacled, who has made a living making wisecracks and telling witty anecdotes about horse racing.He is sort of a cross between a Bennet Cerf and George Burns of the backstretch, except he's not quite as old as Burns and doesn't smoke cigars.Burroughs made one of his rare appearances at Laurel this weekend. Rare for a good reason. He's 90, and doesn't stray much anymore from his retirement home in Florida.Ostensibly, he was here to present the trophy in a race with a long-winded name -- the Maryland Racing Writers' Handicap, which vies with the Japan Racing Association Handicap for the breadth of its title.

Acting Happy, a lightly raced filly with the smallest earnings in the field, powered into the lead in the stretch and outran No Such Word to the finish line to win the $175,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on Friday. The race was marred by an accident leaving the backstretch in which two jockeys were thrown and one horse went down, and the incident could have implications for today's Preakness. The problem started when Diva Delite clipped heels with C C's Pal and fell, throwing jockey Julien Leparoux.

Maryland horse racing may be on shaky ground, but Laurel Park in winter is still appealing to a number of trainers from outside the state. With the 48-day winter meet set to begin at Laurel Park on Jan. 4, and the weather growing colder up north, Laurel appears to be a popular haven. Twenty-five new trainers have brought their horses here, which is more than in years past. "The New England boys have been coming here for years, after their tracks' seasons end," Maryland Jockey Club racing secretary Georganne Hale said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Her face lights up as she greets visitors outside Barn 41 at Churchill Downs. They all want to know the same thing, something not only difficult to know but also difficult to tell: Akiko Gothard's life story."

From the time he was 17, entrepreneur Ben Cohen had only himself as a boss -- becoming with his partner and brother Herman a liquidator and builder, and a pioneer in Baltimore television broadcasting.But most of all, he was a noted sportsman -- co-owner for 34 years of Pimlico Race Course, and owner with his wife, Zelda, of many thoroughbreds, including 1965 Belmont Stakes winner Hail All.On Monday at Sinai Hospital, less than a mile from the Pimlico backstretch, Mr. Cohen died of complications of old age. He was 94."

When outrider William J. Rudolph, known to everyone as Rudy, met with the woman at Social Security, she looked at him in amazement."You sure this is right?" she said. "We don't get people in here who've kept the same job for 33 years."Rudolph shrugged."I just thought that's what you did," he said.That was, after all, what he did: work 33 years at Maryland thoroughbred tracks as an outrider, chasing down loose horses in the morning and leading post parades in the afternoon.But on this Labor Day at Timonium, after a career that endeared him to nearly everyone, Rudolph will retire -- quietly, he hopes, without fanfare, because in his mind, he has done nothing spectacular.