Belmont Park

Horse racing Dominguez sets Belmont Park record for victories with 93rd Jockey Ramon Dominguez set a modern-day record for victories at Belmont Park's spring/summer meet Friday when he guided Michael Dubb and Robert Joscelyn's I've Got Speed ($7.70) to win the fifth race, recording his 93rd win for the meet. Hall of Famer Angel Cordero Jr. had held the mark for most victories since records were kept, notching 92 victories during the 1982 spring/summer meet. "It's very, very exciting," Dominguez said.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Allen Jerkens broke his own chance for a historic streak at Saratoga yesterday when he withdrew Virginia Rapids from the $1 million Travers Stakes on Saturday because the colt "just wasn't 1,000 percent."It was the second time in three weeks that Jerkens had withdrawn a star from a major race because he wasn't satisfied with the horse's sharpness. He took Classy Mirage out of the Test Stakes for fillies July 31, and said then: "I don't know what's wrong, but she's not at her best."

Grover G. `Bud' Delp and H. Graham Motion train horses at barns near one another in a far corner of Laurel Park racetrack. Tonight, they meet at the Meadowlands in New Jersey in a supreme test for their pair of talented 4-year-olds. Delp will saddle Include, and Motion will send out Broken Vow in the Grade II $500,000 Meadowlands Cup, a 1 1/8 -mile race under the lights set for a 10:14 p.m. start. Despite a field of six, including the gutsy Gander, the Meadowlands Cup could be a two-horse race.

Even though Pimlico-based Valley Crossing ended up third in the Woodward Stakes at Belmont Park on Saturday, he still earned $185,000 for his owner, Robert Meyerhoff of Phoenix, Md.The winnings -- $60,000 purse money from the Woodward and a $125,000 bonus for finishing third in the nine-race American Championship Racing Series -- is enough to push the 5-year-old horse to fourth place on the list of all-time Maryland-bred money-winners.Valley Crossing now ranks below only Broad Brush, Safely Kept and Little Bold John among the richest state-breds.

The outbreak of an equine herpes virus at Belmont Park has caused Maryland racing officials to ban horses shipping into local tracks from Aqueduct, Belmont, Philadelphia and Garden State parks.In addition, horses that leave Laurel and Pimlico race courses and the Bowie training center and ship to those tracks will not be allowed to return.The ban may last up to 10 days. If it goes longer, entries for Laurel's Feb. 19-20 Sprint Fest, showpiece of the track's winter racing season, could be affected.

LOS ANGELES -- The California Legislature's bill that would specifically deal with the same racing safety questions that were raised after the death of Go For Wand at the Breeders' Cup Saturday at Belmont Park in New York will go into effect Jan. 1, but the California Horse Racing Board is wondering where the funds will come from to compile statistics on "injuries, fatalities and comparative accident rates for all racing and training venues . . . and to...

Clem Florio, oddsmaker at Laurel Race Course, looked at the time posted by You And I in the Riva Ridge Stakes at Belmont Park last month and remarked, "This horse is a mutation. If he ran any faster, he'd be a jaguar."The stout bay colt is the second choice today in a bulky 11-horse field for the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash. On the day that Belmont Park was souped-up for the 126th Belmont Stakes, the colt ran seven furlongs in 1 minute, 20 1/5 seconds in the Riva Ridge, breaking the record set 21 years ago by King's Bishop by a fifth of a second.

Holy Bull will not run in the Belmont Stakes June 11.The horse's owner-trainer, Jimmy Croll, said he reached that decision yesterday, three days after the gray 3-year-old colt decisively beat older horses Monday in the Metropolitan Handicap.Instead, Holy Bull could make his next start in the July 3 Dwyer Handicap at Belmont Park and use that race as a springboard to the July 31 Haskell Invitational Handicap on Croll's home grounds at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J."It's just too quick to run him back in the Belmont [Stakes]

Lenny Hale, vice president of racing at Laurel/Pimlico, says that trainer Billy Mott thinks like a horse."By that, I mean, he can tell almost by osmosis why a horse i uncomfortable and what can be done to help him. He doesn't need a magnifying glass to do it."Today, Mott, fourth leading money-winning trainer in America makes a rare appearance in Maryland when he saddles Lion Cavern in the $300,000 Frank J. De Francis Dash. The horse will be ridden by Julie Krone, heroine of the 1993 Belmont Stakes and a former Maryland jockey.

NEW YORK -- The reigning Queen of the Turf spent a relaxed day in her stall at Belmont Park yesterday as her owners plotted their next step.Having thrashed Meadow Star in Saturday's Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont, Lite Light is likely to race fillies again, but not until the fall. At an informal news conference yesterday at Hollywood Park, owners M.C. Hammer and his family said Lite Light will rest for a spell and then prepare for races in September. She is scheduled to leave Belmont for her base at the northern California tracks tomorrow or Wednesday.