Smart Guy

Good Fellas Stables purchased Smart Guy as a yearling at the Timonium sales for $10,000. Obviously, he was a bargain.The Smarten colt returned the purchase price more than four-fold yesterday with a resounding victory in the $75,000 Deputed Testamony Stakes at 8-to-1 odds.A full brother to the accomplished Maragold Princess, Smart Guy "is not a very big horse," according to trainer Tim Ritchey. "But I liked the way he looked in the ring and the way he moved."With jockey David Appleby in the irons, Smart Guy stalked an honest pace for six furlongs, then exploded to the front and went on to win by 9 1/4 lengths over another long shot, Scootch.

Mike Mussina graduated from Stanford and is supposed to be an intelligent guy, but every once in a while he doesn't act that way. A few years ago, when the New York Yankees were opening the season in Japan, Mussina resented that the team had to make that trip and let everyone know it. He didn't stop complaining, and he proceeded to have a mediocre season, probably his worst, and there was a feeling he got himself into a mental rut over the trip and...

Not long ago, they were fending off sarcastic snickers; today, they're taking on partners. They're the Good Fella Stables, owner of the 3-year-old colt Smart Guy that won yesterday's $100,000 Northern Dancer Stakes at Laurel Park. It was the third stakes victory for the Maryland-bred 3-year-old and it boosted his earnings to $434,000. This was the same Smart Guy who was purchased at the Timonium yearling sales in October 1996 for $10,000, the first acquisition for Delaware partners Dave Malatesta and Stewart Taub.

Just about midway through the past century, the guys who ran CBS decided to change the anchorman of the Evening News. Then as now, anchormen changes didn't happen with the flip of a coin, so there was a long debate about what to do. The bosses went through a long list of guys, but the news president at the time liked urbane Charles Collingwood, one of Edward R. Murrow's boys. The entertainment boss liked this slick, handsome, smart guy by the name of Mike Wallace or, if he wasn't available, a guy named Clete Roberts who was anchoring the local news in Los Angeles.

TodayA pair of added-money events on the grass course are on tap this weekend at Laurel Park.Smart Guy heads the field for the Humphrey S. Finney Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile event worth $60,000 for 3-year-old registered Maryland-breds.Smart Guy, trained by Tim Ritchey for the Good Fellas Stables, is coming off a place finish in Delaware Park's Leonard Richards Stakes. The Smarten colt is 1-for-2 over the infield, his lone score coming at the Stanton, Del., plant.Smart Guy's chief opposition will likely come from Pettit's Quest, runner-up in the Woodlawn Stakes, but unplaced in two outings since.

Kathryn Clark's Ewer All Wet beat Crosspatch to the punch and won the $75,000 Damascus Handicap yesterday at Laurel Park. Jockey Mario Pino, aboard Ewer All Wet, and Nik Goodwin, aboard Crosspatch, had front-runner Smart Guy in their sights as the field headed into the far turn. Pino sent Ewer All Wet to the inside of Smart Guy, and Goodwin and Crosspatch took the overland route. Ewer All Wet got the jump, grabbed the lead and won, finishing 3 3/4 lengths ahead of Crosspatch in 1:42 4/5 for the 1 1/16 miles over the fast main track.

Friday's rainfall meant a lot to area farmers and to the connections of Pettit's Quest.With probable favorite Temptation Bound scratched and the race moved to the main track after the turf course was softened by the moisture, Pettit's Quest came roaring from behind to overtake front-running Smart Guy and win the $60,000 Humphrey S. Finney Stakes yesterday at Laurel Park."

On his second visit to Maryland, Talk's Cheap ended up in the same spot he did the first time: the winner's circle.The 3-year-old colt from New York survived a gallant charge from Olive Flu, another New York visitor, to win yesterday's Thanksgiving feature at Laurel Park, the $100,000 Annapolis Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile late-season test for 3-year-olds.In mid-afternoon mist and fog before 5,584 patrons, Talk's Cheap, the even-money favorite, pursued Smart Guy out of the starting gate all the way into the final turn.

TodayTwo sophomoresTwo sophomores -- one locally trained, the other a shipper from Philadelphia Park -- meet in the sixth Horatius Stakes. Nine 3-year-olds passed the entry box for the seven-furlong affair with a $50,000 purse. Mr. Katowice, a Florida-bred conditioned by Bob Camac, is the impressive winner of both appearances at Laurel. He won his latest outing by 11 1/4 lengths against a field of allowance runners. Hush Itsa Secret is 3-for-3 in a career that began as a $10,000 claimer last autumn at Delaware Park.

From chess, I know from nothing. In my time, which everybody recalls as The Great Smart Guy Era of Baltimore City College, we all played a brilliant intellectual game across the cafeteria tables, where one guy would hold his forefingers together and his thumbs straight up to form a goal post, and the other player tried to flick a matchbook through the extended forefingers like a field goal.Great Smart Guy Era, no?Well, no, not exactly. Not compared to today, anyway. I know the city schools are in trouble, and I know the old grads say the glory days of City College happened a long time ago, so how does anybody explain this thing that's happening with City's chess team?

Ravens offensive coordinator Jim Fassel didn't like the show Friday night in Minnesota. There were too many mental mistakes, turnovers and times when the Ravens simply got whipped physically. But Fassel is treating the 30-7 loss to the Vikings more as an aberration than the norm. Until that game, the Ravens' offense had shown progress. It had not scored as many points as Fassel would have liked, but it had moved the ball by establishing a running game and it kept often-injured quarterback Steve McNair protected.

He hasn't been seen much on TV since he was orbiting the Earth with a bunch of wise-guy robots, doomed to watching bad movies. But Joel Hodgson, who made an art form of razzing movies on the cult-favorite TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000 for five of its seven seasons, will be back in January - and on network TV to boot. He and his brother Jim Hodgson have been hired for the new Jimmy Kimmel late-night talk show, set to have its premiere on ABC after Nightline next month. "I think my role is writer/producer," Hodgson says from Los Angeles.

PHILADELPHIA - The path taken by Orioles pitcher Travis Driskill to the visitor's dugout at Veterans Stadium is blocked by a swarm of flying insects, so tiny they can't be seen unless packed together to create a fog. "Ah, they're not so bad," he said, declining to use the standard hand wave that reduces the chance of inhaling them. What about the ballpark itself, a round, dank building with soggy carpeting, rusted pipes and all the personality of a cadaver? "Actually, I don't mind it at all," he said.

Kathryn Clark's Ewer All Wet beat Crosspatch to the punch and won the $75,000 Damascus Handicap yesterday at Laurel Park. Jockey Mario Pino, aboard Ewer All Wet, and Nik Goodwin, aboard Crosspatch, had front-runner Smart Guy in their sights as the field headed into the far turn. Pino sent Ewer All Wet to the inside of Smart Guy, and Goodwin and Crosspatch took the overland route. Ewer All Wet got the jump, grabbed the lead and won, finishing 3 3/4 lengths ahead of Crosspatch in 1:42 4/5 for the 1 1/16 miles over the fast main track.

On his second visit to Maryland, Talk's Cheap ended up in the same spot he did the first time: the winner's circle.The 3-year-old colt from New York survived a gallant charge from Olive Flu, another New York visitor, to win yesterday's Thanksgiving feature at Laurel Park, the $100,000 Annapolis Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile late-season test for 3-year-olds.In mid-afternoon mist and fog before 5,584 patrons, Talk's Cheap, the even-money favorite, pursued Smart Guy out of the starting gate all the way into the final turn.

Not long ago, they were fending off sarcastic snickers; today, they're taking on partners. They're the Good Fella Stables, owner of the 3-year-old colt Smart Guy that won yesterday's $100,000 Northern Dancer Stakes at Laurel Park. It was the third stakes victory for the Maryland-bred 3-year-old and it boosted his earnings to $434,000. This was the same Smart Guy who was purchased at the Timonium yearling sales in October 1996 for $10,000, the first acquisition for Delaware partners Dave Malatesta and Stewart Taub.

Michael Luzzi saw Edgar Prado struggling on Millions. Luzzi knew what to do next.The jockey from New York steered Talk's Cheap to the inside. When Millions drifted wide, a disturbing habit he can't seem to break, Luzzi and Talk's Cheap barreled through the opening on the far turn and drove down the Pimlico homestretch to victory yesterday in the $200,000 Federico Tesio Stakes.The triumph by Talk's Cheap, who broke his maiden by 20 lengths at Aqueduct, capped the Maryland Spring Challenge, a lively afternoon of racing featuring five stakes, four of them for Maryland-breds, as well as the oldies band Stevie and the Satellites and the final appearance in Maryland of jockey Julie Krone.

We certainly made a big deal about Boogie Weinglass in th daily newspapers yesterday.Nobody I know ever made so much news from something reported on a local radio talk show, unless, of course, you count the time William Donald Schaefer called up the Joe Lombardo Show, disguised his voice and blasted Joe for interviewing some twerpy college professor who said Baltimore was an armpit.Anyway, in case you didn't hear it, Monday night -- LIVE and ON THE AIR -- Boogie's old pal and WCAO talk show host Stan "The Fan" Charles reported that Boogie was interested in maybe buying the Baltimore Orioles from Mr. Eli Jacobs, mild-mannered millionaire who doesn't return phone calls to hardly anyone, never mind a guy named Boogie.

Friday's rainfall meant a lot to area farmers and to the connections of Pettit's Quest.With probable favorite Temptation Bound scratched and the race moved to the main track after the turf course was softened by the moisture, Pettit's Quest came roaring from behind to overtake front-running Smart Guy and win the $60,000 Humphrey S. Finney Stakes yesterday at Laurel Park."

TodayA pair of added-money events on the grass course are on tap this weekend at Laurel Park.Smart Guy heads the field for the Humphrey S. Finney Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile event worth $60,000 for 3-year-old registered Maryland-breds.Smart Guy, trained by Tim Ritchey for the Good Fellas Stables, is coming off a place finish in Delaware Park's Leonard Richards Stakes. The Smarten colt is 1-for-2 over the infield, his lone score coming at the Stanton, Del., plant.Smart Guy's chief opposition will likely come from Pettit's Quest, runner-up in the Woodlawn Stakes, but unplaced in two outings since.