Change of Season Takes Toll on Alabama Racing

Officials of Birmingham Race Course have learned the hard way that football is king in Alabama.

Their summer meeting was so profitable that track officials decided to seek permission to provide racing through December. Now they want to shut down Nov. 19.

“We will never race against football again,” said Stanley Phillips, executive vice president of Delaware North, which manages the track. “We made a mistake by staying open after Sept. 9.”

During the summer meeting, the track averaged $450,000 a day in bets for 75 days of racing. But during the first six racing days in October, the average fell to $197,000.

“We’ve been trending downward and there’s no sense fighting it,” Phillips said.

Add horse racing: Ross Peddicord of the Baltimore Evening Sun on the beginning of Arabian horse racing at Laurel Race Course in Maryland: “In the first Arabian race, Burning Sand, one of the sport’s top 3-year-olds (Arabians do not race as 2-year-olds), was scratched in the paddock because of discrepancies on his foal papers.

“It would be comparable to saying that a top thoroughbred 2-year-old, such as Adjudicating, was not really Adjudicating, but a ringer, and finding it out after he had already won four of six races and broken a track record.

“According to Patty Kolb, Laurel’s identifier for both Arabians and thoroughbreds, the discrepancies were not minor, but ones that any conscientious official would easily pick up.

“ ‘The horse was registered as having four dark feet, but one foot was striped,’ Kolb said. ‘He was listed as having three white snips on his nose, but only had one. An identifiable cowlick was missing on his left side.’ ”

Last add horse racing: Birmingham wasn’t the only track to feel an autumn chill. Paul Moran of Newsday on the recently completed thoroughbred meeting at Belmont Park:

“On-track attendance, during a meeting that saw the most important races of autumn play to tiny live crowds, was down by about 5% to a disgraceful daily average of 10,938 for the 42-day session. Handle, more than $108 million for the meeting, was down by 7% on track. New York City OTB was off by about 2.5%.”

Trivia time: Who was the only pitcher to win at least one World Series game in five consecutive years?

Summing it up: Before Sunday’s news conference during which postponement of the World Series was announced, the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants worked out.

Manager Tony La Russa of the Athletics was saying that former USC star Mark McGwire might eventually win a Gold Glove, when a grounder rolled through the first baseman’s legs.

“Nice play, Mark,” La Russa yelled.

“There are 26 other managers I can play for,” McGwire joked.

“And I make 27,” La Russa shot back. “USC math.”

There are, of course, 26 major league teams.

Trivia answer: Allie Reynolds of the New York Yankees, 1949-1953.

Quotebook: Coach Buddy Ryan after his Philadelphia Eagles beat the Raiders Sunday for their third consecutive victory: “Good teams win three in a row. Great teams win four in a row.”