* Yankee Wildcat ($18.20) scored a wire-to-wire upset in the $75,000 Mister Diz Stakes at Pimlico, beating Nortouch by 3 1/2 lengths. Defending champ Ghostly Numbers tracked the pace but faded to finish last of eight.
* Caught in the Rain ($7.60), a multiple graded-stakes winner on turf, proved she could handle dirt just fine as she wore down Golddigger Beware for a three-quarter-length victory in the $50,000 Pistol Packer Handicap for statebreds at Philadelphia Park.
Forty-nine years ago, Walter M. Jeffords, president of the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., announced the names of the first inductees - horses, trainers, and jockeys - to be enshrined in the newly formed Hall of Fame.
Thoroughbred racing finally joined other major sports in formally recognizing its immortals.
Twelve jockeys, six trainers, and 10 Thoroughbreds were inducted in 1955. New names have been added every year since, and the number of horses now totals more than 160; the number of jockeys total more than 80.
Television Games Network had handle of $88.6 million in the second quarter of 2004, the company said Friday. It was the highest quarterly figure posted by the company in its history.
The handle figure was a 45 percent increase over the figure for the second quarter of 2003. For the first six months of 2004, handle through TVG's Oregon-based wagering hub is up 52 percent, the company said, to $131 million.
Public smarting over retirement of fan favorite
I would love to see Daily Racing Form do an investigative story on how the breeding industry is killing horse racing.
I was one of the first women allowed to work on the backstretch at Arlington Park, in the late 1960's. Since that time I have watched a sport that has been the love of my life go down the drain.
Magna Entertainment Corp., the largest racetrack operator in North America, lost $25.5 million in the second quarter of 2004, principally as a result of a $26.7 million non-cash charge to reflect the lower value of several of its properties.
The loss reversed the results from the second quarter of last year, when Magna had net income of $800,000. For the first six months of 2004, Magna has had net income of $4.4 million, compared with net income of $13.5 million in the first six months of 2003.
Tom Ridge, the horse named for the director of Homeland Security, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite among the 10 trotters entered for Saturday's $1 million Hambletonian final at The Meadowlands Racetrack.
Tom Ridge posted a victory in 1:52.60 in his elimination heat last weekend, the fastest ever in a Hambletonian elimination. He will be driven by Ron Pierce, who has already wrapped up his first Meadowlands title.
The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, the centerpiece of Ascot's three-day July meeting, will be run next year at Newbury while a new grandstand is being built at Ascot. Next year's Royal Meeting at Ascot has already been rescheduled for York on June 14-18, but a venue has yet to be selected for Ascot's two-day September Festival. . . . WinTicket.com, the online wagering company, is holding a $50,000 Triple Trifecta promotion around the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Sunday.
The Breeders' Cup has elected eight new members to its board and re-elected five other members, the organization announced Wednes-day. Elected to three-year terms on the board were Antony Beck of Gainesway Farm, Bill Casner of WinStar Farm, Doug Cauthen of Fayette Farm, Terry Finley of West Point Thorough-breds, Michael Goodbody of Gainesborough Stud Management in England, L. William Heiligbrodt of Heiligbrodt Racing Stable, and J. Michael O'Farrell of Ocala Stud Farm. Re-elected were E. K. Gaylord of Lazy E Ranch, R.D.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Racing officials are becoming increasingly concerned that rebate shops are accepting layoff bets from unlicensed offshore bookmakers, an official with the Thoroughbred Racing Associations said Tuesday at a racing law conference in Saratoga Springs.