Mike Luzzi

A photograph in the sports section of yesterday's editions incorrectly identified jockey Joe Rocco as jockey Mike Luzzi.The Sun regrets the error.Mike Luzzi, leading rider at the Pimlico meeting, was born into racing and has followed the sport from a young age. A 21-year-old grandson of trainer Virgil "Buddy" Raines, who saddled Greek Money to win the 1962 Preakness, Luzzi was a 1989 Eclipse Award winner as the nation's top apprentice and was the leading rider...

Digger sped to the lead, turned back the 4-5 favorite and drew off to a driving victory in the $70,000 Fire Plug Stakes on Saturday at Laurel Park. Never menaced at any point, Digger and jockey Mike Luzzi completed the six-furlong distance in a stakes-record 1 minute, 9.13 seconds and finished 3 3/4 lengths ahead of Celtic Innis, who nipped Malibu Kid for second. Ravalo, the post-time favorite, faded to fourth. "I had to use him a little bit to get there, but he was ready today," Luzzi said.

Carolina Peach capped a four-win day for jockey Mario Pino yesterday when they led from start to finish in the ninth race, the $18,000 feature at Pimlico Race Course.The filly won by a length over Filex's Dream after running six furlongs in 1 minute, 12 1/5 seconds over a fast track.Pino, 30, who moved into third in the jockeys standings, won three other races from his six mounts, booting home winners of the fourth, fifth and eighth races. He has ridden 15 winners and trails only Mike Luzzi (22)

A strong late run by Frottage at Laurel Race Course yesterday gave owners Bob and Jane Meyerhoff and their trainer, Dick Small, their second stakes victory in a week.Last Saturday, the star of the Meyerhoff homebred string, Valley Crossing, won the Grade I Philip H. Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park, pushed his career earnings over $1 million and moved into sixth-place among all-time leading Maryland-bred money earners.The horse leaves Pimlico Race Course on Aug. 16 to run in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar.Yesterday the sometimes erratic Frottage won a $50,000 stakes named in honor of his sire and Meyerhoff's best runner, Broad Brush.

Ameri Run led most of the way to win the $43,100 Hirsc Jacobs Stakes at Pimlico Race Course yesterday.The colt was urged to the early lead from his inside post by jockey Greg Hutton, then finally put away his race-long pursuer, Exclusive Dove, in the last eighth-mile.Ameri Run won by 1 1/4 lengths over Exclusive Dove, with Nasty Hero another four lengths back.The victory was the first in a stakes for Ameri Run, the even-money favorite in a field of six 3-year-olds. He ran the six-furlong distance in 1 minute, 10 4/5 seconds.

LAUREL -- When it rains, it's best to stay inside.As a steady rain soaked Laurel Race Course yesterday, jockeys aware of that fact found shelter in the winner's circle. Horses staying near the rail won virtually every event on a 10-race program."The track looked like it stayed pretty packed down on the rail," said jockey Mark Johnston. "The dirt on the outside hadn't washed down to the rail. Tomorrow [today], it might change, and you might have a dead rail."Johnston, riding Thirty Eight Coeds in the fifth, rode one of just two winners to maintain an outside course.

Tripp Trial stopped what could have been a three-stakes losing streak for the Frannie and Jessie Campitelli racing stable yesterday when she won a four-horse photo finish in the $35,000 Skipat Stakes at Laurel Race Course.Earlier last week, the Campitelli-owned-and-trained Logan's Mist lost a three-horse photo finish to Fairy Garden and Saratoga Source in the $100,000 Matchmaker Stakes at Atlantic City.Another Campitelli runner, Matchbox Dreamer, finished third as the even-money favorite yesterday in the Bold Irishman Stakes at Laurel.

LAUREL -- Trainer Dale Capuano will start a 30-day suspension tomorrow for two positive tests of racehorses in 1988 and 1989.Capuano, one of Maryland's most prominent trainers in recent years, gave up appeals of the tests after losing in Prince George's Circuit Court last week.He will be out through Nov. 25 and must pay a $500 fine. During that time, he will not be allowed on the grounds of virtually all racetracks in the United States.Capuano served a 20-day suspension this year for positive tests in Pennsylvania.

Digger sped to the lead, turned back the 4-5 favorite and drew off to a driving victory in the $70,000 Fire Plug Stakes on Saturday at Laurel Park. Never menaced at any point, Digger and jockey Mike Luzzi completed the six-furlong distance in a stakes-record 1 minute, 9.13 seconds and finished 3 3/4 lengths ahead of Celtic Innis, who nipped Malibu Kid for second. Ravalo, the post-time favorite, faded to fourth. "I had to use him a little bit to get there, but he was ready today," Luzzi said.

LAUREL -- While a young trainer savored a first yesterday at Laurel Race Course, an old veteran made his last exit from the starting gate.Trainer Lynn Cuttino, 23, saddled the first winner of his career when Miss Carter won the ninth-race feature. Nearly four hours earlier, Rollodka raced around the track for the final time.Miss Carter, ridden by apprentice Mark Chavez, edged away from Forgotten Miss to win the $16,000 allowance by 1 1/2 lengths, touching off a celebration among friends and family of Cuttino, 23. Miss Carter was the first starter Cuttino saddled for her owner, Brookwood Farm.

Montbrook vs. Secret Odds.Who is the faster horse?Mike Luzzi is the only jockey who has ridden both 3-year-olds.But he is taking the diplomatic route going into Sunday's matchup when Maryland's two quickest horses meet for the first time in the Frank J. De Francis Dash."

Tripp Trial stopped what could have been a three-stakes losing streak for the Frannie and Jessie Campitelli racing stable yesterday when she won a four-horse photo finish in the $35,000 Skipat Stakes at Laurel Race Course.Earlier last week, the Campitelli-owned-and-trained Logan's Mist lost a three-horse photo finish to Fairy Garden and Saratoga Source in the $100,000 Matchmaker Stakes at Atlantic City.Another Campitelli runner, Matchbox Dreamer, finished third as the even-money favorite yesterday in the Bold Irishman Stakes at Laurel.

Clarence "Jo Jo" Ladner barely cracks the top 10 among the state's winningest jockeys.But his cadre of live stakes mounts -- Chip's Dancer, Broad Gains and the stable of well-bred horses owned by Israel Cohen and trained by Dean Gaudet -- have made him a power this year in added-money races.Yesterday he scored his fourth stakes win of 1993 when he won the Primonetta Handicap at Pimlico Race Course on the Cohen-owned Mixed Appeal.The hard-knocking mare has been stakes-placed on numerous occasions, but had never actually won an added-money race until she collared Singing Ring near the eighth pole yesterday and drew off to 1 3/4 -length victory.

The list of top horses and jockeys announced last week as finalists for a 1992 Eclipse Award included only one contender with a Maryland connection.It is 19-year-old Freddy Castillo, the leading apprentice at Laurel Race Course and sixth-ranked jockey in the overall standings.But when the Eclipse Awards are announced on ESPN (on The Daily Racing Form's "Thoroughbred Digest" Feb. 1), the winner in the apprentice category is expected to be Florida-based Jesus Bracho and not Castillo.Castillo earned enough votes to place him among the top three apprentices in the nation, but he ranks third behind Bracho and Rosemary Homeister in both earnings and number of winners, according to statistics compiled by The Daily Racing Form.

It seemed like old times.The white and cherry silks of Stuart Janney Jr., which have been carried in Kentucky Derbies and Maryland Hunt Cups, showed up in the winner's circle at Laurel Race Course yesterday after Finder's Choice won the Walter Haight Handicap.It might just have been another Saturday feature, a typical $50,000 weekend stakes, but Stuart Janney III, who inherited the horse after his father died four years ago, said it gave him a special feeling.Finder's Choice along with Private Terms, the Wood Memorial winner that failed as the favorite in the 1988 Kentucky Derby, were in the last crop of 3-year-olds that Janney's father bred and lived to see race.

Maryland racing cards will become part of the daily diet in New Jersey and Delaware when Laurel Race Course's summer meeting begins July 2.Under arrangements between Laurel and Pimlico management and officials at Atlantic City Race Course, Garden State Park and Delaware Park, the Maryland signal will be transmitted to those out-of-state sites.In addition, wagers from those three tracks and from casinos in the Las Vegas Pari-Mutuel Association will be "commingled" with the on-track pools in Maryland to create a common betting pool and determine final payoffs.

OXON HILL -- The "triple bug" is back.The Maryland Racing Commission unanimously reversed itself yesterday and restored a graduated scale of weight allowances for jockeys starting out as apprentices.Maryland will now return to a state that has bragging rights as the spawning ground for champion jockeys such as Chris McCarron and Kent Desormeaux, former jockey's agent Chick Lang, Sr. told the commission in impromptu testimony.Under the new ruling, apprentices, or bug riders, as they are referred to in the vernacular of the track, will get a 10-pound weight allowance until they ride five winners.

Maryland racing cards will become part of the daily diet in New Jersey and Delaware when Laurel Race Course's summer meeting begins July 2.Under arrangements between Laurel and Pimlico management and officials at Atlantic City Race Course, Garden State Park and Delaware Park, the Maryland signal will be transmitted to those out-of-state sites.In addition, wagers from those three tracks and from casinos in the Las Vegas Pari-Mutuel Association will be "commingled" with the on-track pools in Maryland to create a common betting pool and determine final payoffs.

OXON HILL -- The "triple bug" is back.The Maryland Racing Commission unanimously reversed itself yesterday and restored a graduated scale of weight allowances for jockeys starting out as apprentices.Maryland will now return to a state that has bragging rights as the spawning ground for champion jockeys such as Chris McCarron and Kent Desormeaux, former jockey's agent Chick Lang, Sr. told the commission in impromptu testimony.Under the new ruling, apprentices, or bug riders, as they are referred to in the vernacular of the track, will get a 10-pound weight allowance until they ride five winners.

LAUREL -- While a young trainer savored a first yesterday at Laurel Race Course, an old veteran made his last exit from the starting gate.Trainer Lynn Cuttino, 23, saddled the first winner of his career when Miss Carter won the ninth-race feature. Nearly four hours earlier, Rollodka raced around the track for the final time.Miss Carter, ridden by apprentice Mark Chavez, edged away from Forgotten Miss to win the $16,000 allowance by 1 1/2 lengths, touching off a celebration among friends and family of Cuttino, 23. Miss Carter was the first starter Cuttino saddled for her owner, Brookwood Farm.