Horse Racing

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association plans to announce today further steps to enhance the security of wagering, likely including a selective review of past winners of multiple-race bets. That is the type of bet at the heart of a fraud case against a Baltimore man and two friends that grew out of the alleged manipulation of his "Ultra Pick Six" bets on the Oct. 26 Breeders' Cup. The three men were charged last week with fraud and, through their attorneys, have denied any wrongdoing.

More than 40 years later, Hank Goldberg remembers the pained expression on his father's face the day he told him he wanted to buy a car. Not so coincidentally, it was also the day Goldberg told his old man he had been introduced to horse racing.Goldberg, a racing analyst for ESPN, was drawn to the sport as a teen-ager by a friend whose uncle worked at Monmouth Park, and he hit a $450 double on his first trip to the track.Goldberg's father was a sports columnist, and when he told his dad that he wanted to get a set of wheels, the father naturally asked where he had gotten the money.

For the second time in a little more than a month jockey Ryan Fogelsonger was involved in a major spill. The 2002 Eclipse Award winning apprentice was riding Christmas Slippers, the 2-1 favorite in Thursday's 8th race at Pimlico, when the filly appeared to prop at the M-= mile pole. Fogelsonger, who hustled his mount from post No. 2, was thrown towards the rail and kicked by his horse. He endured several lateral summersaults before coming to a rest and lying motionless on the turf. Pimlico medical director Dr. Harry Harris indicated the 23-year old was complaining of neck pain but was alert.

STANTON, Del. -- Jockey Mario Pino entered yesterday's races at Delaware Park needing two wins to become the 15th rider to reach 6,000 career victories, but he received startling news before his first mount. One of his victories at that track last month was taken away because his horse tested positive for an illegal substance. Therefore, instead of needing two victories for the milestone, Pino needed three and ended the day with one first-place finish in his six races. "It was tough because you think every victory counts," said Pino, who lives in Ellicott City.

Dan Borislow knows how to enliven a slow period in horse racing. He bought a full-page ad in yesterday's Daily Racing Form challenging the California-based Vindication to a showdown with his Toccet for the 2-year-old Eclipse Award. Borislow offered to bet the connections of Vindication $200,000 against their $100,000 that the Laurel-based Toccet would beat Vindication in the Hollywood Futurity on Dec. 21 at Hollywood Park. Anne and Satish Sanan's Padua Stables owns Vindication, and Bob Baffert trains him. Trouble is, Vindication has been out of serious training since winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Oct. 26 at Arlington Park and isn't slated to race again until February or March.

At post time, there was still a glimmer of hope. OK, maybe not a glimmer, more like a vague, desperate hope that Maryland horse racing's future might somehow be salvaged, maybe even secured. "I don't want to say we're on pins and needles, but this meet does start in limbo," Maryland Jockey Club CEO Lou Raffetto said yesterday. "We're all waiting. I don't like to think about the alternative because it scares me what that means to us," he said. Opening Day of Pimlico's spring meet was a weird one, because as it wore on, it drew closer to what everyone figured was a foregone conclusion: The state's slot machine bill that was going to be racing's salvation - not to mention education's and taxation's salvation - was dying, if not already DOA. Walking through the barns behind the grandstand at Pimlico yesterday, you'd wave to grooms and riders and say, casually: "How's it going?"

Jockey Mario Pino of Ellicott City received word yesterday that he will be replaced on Hard Spun, who finished second in the Kentucky Derby and third in the Preakness, by jockey Garrett Gomez in the Belmont Stakes on June 9. Pino had ridden the Danzig colt to a brilliant finish in the Derby, but faced some hard questions after the May 19 race at Pimlico Race Course, where he made an early move in the midst of a fast pace and then saw his horse weaken down...

Missile Bay rocketed from the gate, opened a comfortable lead and coasted to victory in the first running of the $50,000 Xtra Heat Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, contested over the sloppy going yesterday at Pimlico Race Course. Missile Bay, a daughter of Yes It's True ridden for the first time by jockey Jose Flores, relished the off track while posting a 2 3/4 -length win over Coastal Strike. Partners Due finished third. The winner, trained by Scott Lake, was timed in 58.58 seconds for the five furlongs and paid $10.40.

Jockey Jose Velez Jr. waited until the final eighth of a mile before turning loose R.D. Hubbard's Spring House and held on tight as the bay gelding shifted into overdrive and ran past the leaders to win the $85,000 Japan Racing Association Stakes over the soft turf course yesterday at Laurel Park. Spring House, who dropped back to last as the field raced into the first turn, threaded his way through traffic before angling out to the middle of the track and kicking on to the finish. He covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1 minute, 44.28 seconds, catching front-running long shot Ramazutti at the next-to-last pole and won by a length.

Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra is ready to run against the boys again, and that might mean a little more thoroughbred racing history is at hand. "I expect the best is yet to come," co-owner Jess Jackson said last week in the buildup to today's $1.25 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. Officials hope for a record crowd of more than 53,000 when the filly takes on Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird and five other fellas in...