Columnist Ralph Siraco: Patients running show

IT'S OFFICIAL, the patients are running the asylum.

The final frontier of sports, the untouchable tradition of horse racing, the aristocratic pomp of the Sport of Kings has finally gone the way of the times.

While major league sports were giving in to ridiculous demands by players and their representatives, horse racing stayed in control.

When salaries hit the roof and the bend-over-backward attitudes of franchise owners were cow-towing to superstars, horse racing stayed in control.

And, as the spoiled stars of sports spent more time in the courts of law rather than the courts of choice, horse racing stayed in control.

Horse racing has finally lost it.

It has been slipping for a while, slowly and unassuming, tradition and the rock hard line that has stayed the time in racing has given way to the shameless bidding and romancing that has turned sports into the spectacle that it is today.

Citation is turning in his grave. The spirit of Forego is angry. John Henry wants a re-count and the ghost of the mighty Kelso is about to make some house calls.

When the word was out early this week that trainer Sonny Hine wanted popular eastern track to increase the ante and change the distance of one of their marquee cornerstone races to accommodate his superstar horse Skip Away, many just scoffed at the notion.

Now, for many years race tracks have been adding "bonus" monies to certain conditions of major races as new incentives to insure that the superstar horses headline their big event.

Many have gone as far as paying the bills for transportation and preferences at their tracks. Let's not forget Real Quiet's police escort motorcade through New York during his Triple Crown quest in the Big Apple.

But, changing the distance in addition to upping the pot is getting a little too out of control.

Well, credit Monmouth Park race track on the shore of New Jersey for doing just that.

The August 30th Iselin Handicap has been changed to 1-1/8th miles from it's scheduled 1-1/16 miles distance, and the purse had doubled from $250,000 to $500,000. Even the World's richest horse race, whether it's the World Cup in Dubai or the Breeders' Cup Classic, USA -- at $4 million each, doesn't charge that much per 16th of a mile. The real estate of Monmouth Park's main track on Iselin Day could rival the frontage at the corner of Tropicana and the Strip.

And all for the sake of getting America's now horse, Skip Away.

Now, it's not that Skippy doesn't deserve it, or that the Monmouth Park race track and its legion of fans shouldn't witness the sport's newest superstar. It's how they got him that is worrysome, and it's impact on the future of competition in our sport that could be in the balance here.

First, the age-old complaint of too much weight bent racing secretaries all over the country into P.R. men rather than handicappers. For years now trainers have pre-threatened racing secretaries that "too much weight" and the superstar takes a "pass-a-dena" to another track or stays in the barn. I'll bet old Citation is giving Ben Jones (his trainer) a tongue-lashing for packing all that weight all those races. But, no matter how much Ben complained it was "take the weight assignment or don't run" in the old days.

Now, the competition from tracks to keep and get the big name equines is so intense, that many so-called handicap races have take the refuge into the Weight-for-Age conditions. Simply put, same age and all carry same weight no matter the talent level or accomplishments.

Or the weight assignments get so ridiculous that the exercise shouldn't have even taken place. Case in point was Saturday's Bel Air Handicap at Hollywood Park. Free House, the gray that gave us those thrilling photo-finish nail-biters with Silver Charm in the '97 Triple Crown races carrying 126 pounds as a three-year-old, packed the "load" of 124 pounds while thoroughly thrashing his ambitious competition.

Hine changed original plans to return to Southern California for the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on August 15th because Skippy was totally exhausted after his recent trip to the southland. Although Skippy extended his current win streak to seven consecutive graded stakes victories while polishing off his West Coast rivals -- that included Gentlemen -- in the $1 million Hollywood Gold Cup just two weeks ago, the experience did take its toll. Hine revealed in the Sunday edition of the Daily Racing Form that Skippy came down with a fever the Friday before the Gold Cup in addition to a cracked hoof and fillings in his legs from an earlier incident while training at Belmont Park the week before.

Now, a sixteenth of a mile, two extra weeks and a half million less in money and expected competition may be splitting hairs, but you can't and shouldn't blame Sonny for trying, and you certainly can't take anything away from his horse.

And Skip Away still has to get his weight assignment for the "Handicap." Remember, he toted 130 pounds to victory already this year in the MassCap. So, what "feather" does Sonny accept for Skippy at the Jersy shore.

Well, I'm sure Sonny will "suggest a request" for a suitable package. Like E.F. Hutton, when Sonny speaks they listen. And, if you don't ask you won't get it. It's just a sign of the times.

archive