Belmont Park

Trainer Jonathan Sheppard was blanked yesterday at Pimlico Race Course with two starters and in the Grade I Flower Bowl Handicap with Ratings and Saratoga Source at Belmont Park.But the Pennsylvania-based horseman starred at the Fair Hill Race Course near Elkton.He won three of the six races, including the $10,000 hurdle feature with Cortright Wetherill Jr.'s Eskimo Cove. Sheppard also sent out Jesse M. Henley's Highland Bud for an impressive score at 10 furlongs on the flat.The 8-year-old gelding, who had not raced since winning the $250,000 Breeders' Cup Steeplechase last fall, dominated the field in the sixth race and now appears set for another Breeders' Cup try. The rich event is carded for Oct. 16 at Belmont Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- West By West, a newcomer to the American Championship Racing Series, held off a late surge from Maryland-owned and Maryland-trained Valley Crossing and won TTC the $400,000 Nassau County Handicap yesterday at Belmont Park.Pimlico Special winner Devil His Due finished fourth as the 9-5 favorite, a half-length behind 1991 Kentucky Derby winner Strike the Gold, who made his customary late run but finished third.Devil His Due, current ACRS point leader, carried high weight of 123 pounds, giving the winner 9 pounds.

John's Call, the 10-year-old gelding from Maryland, will bypass the Sussex Handicap tomorrow at Delaware Park and run instead in the Man o' War Stakes on Sept. 8 at Belmont Park, trainer Tom Voss said yesterday. Voss said he was concerned about the condition of Delaware Park's turf course and also wanted to give John's Call another week to recover from his last-place finish Aug. 11 in a Saratoga stakes in which he bled from the lungs for the first time. Voss since has breezed John's Call for the first time on Lasix and will use the anti-bleeding medicine at Belmont as the gelding tries to be the oldest horse to win a Grade I non-steeplechase race.

No trainer has been hotter this fall than Englishman John Hammond, 31, who trains in France. Just a couple of weeks ago he almost pulled off a rare international double, saddling Suave Dancer to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and finishing second by a neck with Dear Doctor in the Turf Classic at Belmont Park.He sends out royally-bred Goofalik in the Budweiser International. Although still unproven in Grade I company, the 4-year-old colt seems to fit the 10 furlongs perfectly and should finish fast with Angel Cordero Jr.Still, the quixotic Algenib is a South American champion who looks superb and is the horse to beat.

The American Championship Racing Series has had a troubled week.Two of the nine tracks, Rockingham and Oaklawn Parks, that sponsor a pair of the rich stakes events for older horses, have backed out of sponsoring races despite the program's success in attracting national television exposure.Then to compound problems, the management at Pimlico Race Course, which holds the Pimlico Special, the fourth leg of the series, is balking at a proposed format change in 1993.ACRS president Barry Weisbord is proposing a "Triple Crown Doubleheader" next year for tracks that hold both Triple Crown and ACRS races.

WHAT horse racing needs these days is a few superstars. By just a nose at Belmont Park over the weekend, the industry lost its chance to create a new fan attraction.The first winner of the Triple Crown -- Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes -- in 20 years was about to be proclaimed as Real Quiet neared the finish, only to see the prize snatched away by a furiously closing Victory Gallop.It was a crushing loss that proved again the truth about "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat."

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Cigar emerged from Saturday's winning effort in the Woodward Stakes in good order, prompting his trainer, Bill Mott, to pronounce that the Maryland-bred is on schedule for what look to be the final two races of his career.Much has been made of Cigar's mood after he lost last month's Pacific Classic at Del Mar -- his first loss after 16 straight wins. He refused for several days to eat a peppermint, his favorite snack. But after the Woodward, Mott said, he ate at least half a dozen.

NEW YORK -- The amount of money bet on horse races in New York is almost never cited as a meaningful economic indicator. If it were, politicians would be taking credit for the unexpected upturn in business at Belmont Park during the past two weeks.Racing in New York, the business that found itself in a tailspin during the unbridled economic growth of the '80s, has had little good economic news in recent years. This is not the industry most likely to lead the local economy out of the recession.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- If you were looking for a horse to challenge Real Quiet on the lip of the Triple Crown, look no further: Grand Slam, trained by D. Wayne Lukas, won the Peter Pan Stakes yesterday to stay undefeated at Belmont Park and create a new role as the potential spoiler.This is a horse whose past is filled with agony and ecstasy. Last year, he won the Belmont Futurity in September and outran Lil's Lad to win the Champagne Stakes at Belmont in October. But in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in November, he suffered a deep cut in his left hind leg and missed four months of racing.

A decomposing body near a playground at a Woodlawn apartment complex was found by a child on his way to school, but the circumstances around the death remained a mystery, police said.The body was reported about 10 a.m. when Lori Harcum, a resident of Belmont Park Apartments in the 1900 block of Richglen Drive, called 911."One of the kids ran out and told me about it," Harcum said yesterday.She went outside to a wooded area near her apartment and looked down a 20-foot embankment, where she could see a body wrapped in a blanket, she said.