Horses

Bad winter weather that caused Laurel Park to cancel four of its scheduled 75 race days during its winter meet contributed to disappointing meet-ending numbers released yesterday by Magna Entertainment Corp. "We saw it coming as the meet progressed," said Lou Raffetto, president and chief operating officer of the Maryland Jockey Club, as he watched a race during Pimlico Race Course's opening yesterday. "The weather was pretty brutal ... during February, and March and we had to cancel closing day."

Looking forward to gaining clearance from her doctor April 18 to return to riding, jockey Anna "Rosie" Napravnik said she has major changes planned for when she gets back in the saddle. The Eclipse Award runner-up for apprentice jockey last season, Napravnik said she has come upon an opportunity too good to pass up and will move her riding base from Maryland to Delaware Park. As part of that arrangement, she will also begin working with agent Steve Rushing, recognized as the top jockey agent in the Mid-Atlantic.

The Baltimore institution of vendors hawking produce from colorful horse-drawn wagons is about to receive a major makeover, but some involved with the city's 19th-century tradition are unhappy with the proposed changes. In August, officials condemned a West Baltimore stable housing 51 horses and ponies but pledged to help the quaint practice endure. A team of city officials began working with the street peddlers, known as arabbers, to find a suitable place to board their animals. Now officials are overhauling the loosely regulated practice of arabbing, enforcing permit requirements for vendors and their animals, and replacing the ramshackle stable with a new facility to be built near the B&O Railroad Museum in Southwest Baltimore.

No trip to South Florida would be complete without at least one exciting night of jai alai, which I think is a Basque term that means "these idiot Americans will bet on anything." The sport is played by men with large curved baskets (cestas) tied to their throwing arms and looks a little like handball, except that you can bet on the outcome just as you would at a racetrack. Now, you might be wondering about the wisdom of applying pari-mutuel betting to a sport played by humans, but it's really quite logical since dogs and horses aren't intelligent enough to fix races by themselves.

Slip inside a stable door in the Laurel Park barn area early on a cold morning, and you will find a smell as sweet as a childhood memory. It is the smell of a long-ago winter's day on a country farm, filled with hay, straw and feed made with molasses. Outside the barn doors, Laurel Park's stable areas are nearly deserted. Trainer Robin Graham is one of the few who have allowed any of her horses outside. At this moment, her lead pony is the last of five horses to have the pleasure of romping in the outdoor pen. The pony is kicking up his heels, enjoying what the humans would call miserable weather.

Five of this year's top 10 money-winning timber horses will be vying for the winner's share of a $25,000 purse in the Ski Roundtop Trophy Stakes, today's feature on the steeplechase card at Shawan Downs in Baltimore County. With the leader, Salmo, injured, Augustin Stables' Irish Prince could supplant him atop the list, but he'll have to contend with a host of challengers trained by Jack Fisher. The Monkton-based Fisher has four entries in the field, all of whom could substantially improve their standing with a victory.

In four years at the Naval Academy, Vanessa Solem has borne the brunt of more than few jokes about her favorite pastime: riding horses. After all, they don't have sea legs, and the Navy never had a cavalry. But Solem, 26, has had the last laugh as she's held together an unofficial equestrian team that has competed in numerous area equestrian events, even winning occasionally among colleges with more resources and organized teams. "Some people are a little sarcastic about it, and some people think it's ridiculous," said Solem.

Dorothy Johns winced as she watched her elderly horse, Foreo, squirm away from handlers leading her into a makeshift stable at Pimlico Race Course. "Poor thing, she's all worked up from the ride up here," said Johns, watching along with a handful of Baltimore arabbers who gathered beside the temporary stable to welcome their horses and ponies back to the city. Last week, city officials condemned the arabbers' decaying stable in the 1900 block of Retreat St., noting structural problems, filth and trash that blocked exits.

Trainer Ben Feliciano, who stables his horses at Laurel Park, is happy to see racing return to the track today, despite what anybody says. "I've raced horses at just about every track in surrounding states this summer," Feliciano said. "And I'm glad to be back where the grooms can just walk the horses out of the stalls and be at the racetrack. "But people have been laughing at me a lot. `How do you stay there?' they say. `You're in a dying state.'" Feliciano sighs. The way things are at the moment, with the horse racing industry bolstered at most tracks near Maryland by slots revenue, he can't argue.

In addition to exercising extremely poor judgment and brutal callousness, Michael Vick also happened to be guilty of exceptionally poor timing. When Virginia authorities raided his property last spring, a law just had kicked in that gave federal investigators latitude in pursuing dogfighting cases. For anyone who cares about animals, this was a welcome departure from how the law previously had looked at animal cruelty. Years ago, I wrote an article about how show horses - jumpers - had been killed by their owners to collect insurance money.

White Marsh woman dies in townhouse fire A single-alarm fire that claimed the life of a White Marsh woman late Saturday night remains under investigation, said a spokeswoman for the Baltimore County Fire Department. The woman's name was being withheld pending notification of family members, said Elise Armacost, the spokeswoman. However, Christine Gallagher, who lives next door to the victim, identified her as Kathy Hall, about 62, and a part-time teacher at a county middle school. Gallagher said Hall lived alone and described her as a "pleasant and quiet person."

Doodles was a "bottom claimer," a racehorse who ran the cheap races at Laurel even at his peak. His racing days were behind him, and when the horse changed hands last week, he went for free. Yet he was not off to the glue factory, but to a second career as a family pet. A nonprofit group, Thoroughbred Placement and Rescue, that finds homes for retired racehorses placed the 5-year-old chestnut thoroughbred on a Baltimore County farm, already home to seven miniature horses and a family looking to ride.

The Maryland Jockey Club announced Friday morning that 167 horses pre-entered the 2009 Jim McKay Maryland Million for the 12 races at Laurel Park on Sept. 26. Nineteen horses are cross-entered, bringing the total number of entries to 186, and the event expects 90 percent participation, according to Mike Gathagan, spokesman for the Maryland Jockey Club. This is the first year the Maryland Million will be run with McKay's name attached to it, a fitting tribute considering it was McKay who originally dreamed up the idea to support horse racing in his adopted home state.

It's one of the most surreal bar scenes in Baltimore. At 5:30 on an average Friday evening, a wave of finely dressed folks from the state's attorney's office and other local government workers filter into the Sidebar Tavern, a scruffy basement corner bar near City Hall to sip beers and cocktails. But the Sidebar isn't just an after-work hangout for the suit-clad crowd. It also moonlights as one of the region's more renowned punk clubs, and it regularly plays host to local and regional rock and hardcore bands.

Sophia Litrenta is planning to open a lemonade stand Tuesday. The 9-year-old is still working out the details but she thinks she'll charge 50 cents a cup. She wants to raise $200, an ambitious goal that means selling 400 cups in the two hours her stand in Lutherville will be open. None of this is exactly exceptional except that Sophia plans to donate her earnings to the Baltimore Police Department Mounted Unit, which had its funding cut and is now seeking the public's help raising $200,000 to keep officers on horseback for at least another year.

When Ferd H. Reuwer served in Maryland's 110th Field Artillery in the early 1930s, they still used horses to haul cannons around the unit's training site in Pikesville. The horses were phased out in 1935, but the National Guard unit carried on, storming Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944, turning out for the riots in Baltimore after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and guarding Washington after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The proud history of the 110th, which traces its roots back to the Revolutionary War, came to an end on Saturday morning when members rolled up their red and gold flags and sheathed them for good.

Joan Bosmans kiddingly calls it "cheerleading for horses." Minus the pompoms and school sweaters, but not the pomp of a centuries-old riding discipline known as a drill team and the sweat of preparing for two performance at this year's Howard County Fair, Bosmans will lead 28 riders and their horses into the show ring at the fairgrounds Thursday night. With a group of all-female riders ranging in age from 8 to 18, and horses ranging from 6 to 35, Bosmans will be celebrating her 25th anniversary with a drill team run by the Maryland 4-H Club through the Spur and Stirrup Club.

The Baltimore Police Department is on the verge of losing its storied horseback unit because of budget cuts and is hoping that a private foundation can raise $200,000 before hay and feed run out at the end of September, forcing officers to give up their horses and move to other assignments. City leaders slashed funds for the unit from $195,300 in fiscal 2009 to $46,900 this year, effectively cutting what is considered one of the oldest police mounted divisions in the country. "They are not going under on my watch," Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said in a statement.

A thoroughbred's tattoo - an identification code stamped inside its upper lip - serves as a key to unlocking much of its past. But what the racing industry mark can't reveal is which of a former racehorse's various owners took good care of it and which did not. Such was the case with two emaciated thoroughbreds recently brought to Days End Farm Horse Rescue, said Kathy Schwartz-Howe, co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit organization....

BELMONT, N.Y. -- Unless you were one of the few to place a bid on him, hardly anyone remembers that Da'Tara won the Belmont Stakes last year. All the focus was on Big Brown's bid for the Triple Crown, and when he completely flopped, Da'Tara's improbable wire-to-wire victory at 38-1 odds seemed like an afterthought. Trainer Nick Zito doesn't mind, however. In fact, he kind of likes flying under the radar. He has certainly had success at the Belmont. In 20 chances, he has won twice, finished second six times and third three times.