As He Comes Down the Stretch, Youth Is Just Passing Him By

Horse racing’s past and future stars hooked up, probably for the last time, at Laurel Race Track Saturday.

Bill Shoemaker, 58, the winningest jockey in history, rode against Kent Desormeaux, 19, who won a record 597 races in 1989. Shoemaker was at Laurel, Md., as part of his farewell tour of tracks.

Andrew Beyer of the Washington Post wrote: “Shoemaker broke from the gate sharply on Harrington and hustled him for the lead, but he could not get loose from his rivals. Harrington got hooked up on the outside of a four-horse battle for the lead.

“Meanwhile, Desormeaux was sitting in perfect striking position with Arctic Reality, letting the front-runners exhaust themselves. As soon as Harrington disposed of the other speedsters, Desormeaux and Arctic Reality swooped to challenge him.

“For a few wondrous strides they were abreast: the jockey who has won the most races in a career, and the jockey who has won the most in a single season. But then Arctic Reality pulled away and carried Desormeaux to his 591st victory of the season, the beneficiary of another perfect ride by the teen-ager.”

Trivia time: North Carolina’s basketball teams had the best winning percentage during the 1980s, 81.7. Which team was second?

Net worth: Defenseman Ken Baumgartner, who joined the New York Islanders in a trade with the Kings on Nov. 30, said that Pat LaFontaine means more to the Islanders than Wayne Gretzky does to the Kings.

Baumgartner said: “In L.A., Gretzky’s got (Luc) Robitaille, (Steve) Duchesne and (Bernie) Nicholls. He’s got a lot of other talented players, whereas with Patty, all his goals are more or less these one-man rushes up the ice.”

Add Gretzky: Agent Don Baizley on the impact of the Gretzky trade on player salaries: “When the top guy moves up, there’s a ripple effect. But it’s not all attributable to Gretzky. There’s a combination of forces at work. The overall health of the industry, the emergence of Europe as a viable option and the possibility of (less-restrictive) free agency in 1991 have forced salaries up.”

Getting technical: The Philadelphia 76ers’ Charles Barkley and Rick Mahorn rank first and second, respectively, in technical fouls among NBA players. Every time Barkley is assessed a technical foul, he donates money to a charity designated by Mahorn, and vice versa.

Barkley said: “We were going to give the money to the homeless, but at the end of the season, we figured they’d have better houses than we do.”

Add NBA: Several NBA writers have called Magic Johnson’s performance for the Lakers against the Philadelphia 76ers on May 16, 1980, the greatest of the 1980s. Eventually playing all five positions, Johnson scored 42 points, had 15 rebounds, seven assists, three steals and a blocked shot in the Lakers’ 123-107 victory. Pat Williams, then the 76ers’ general manager and now general manager of the Orlando Magic, said: “If something like that happened in the Super Bowl or World Series, it would be one of the most talked-about sports events ever.”

Trivia answer: Nevada Las Vegas, 80.7%.

Quotebook: Chuck Schmidt, new executive vice president and chief executive officer of the Detroit Lions: “I haven’t really been a practicing CPA for 14 years. For all those bean counters out there, I want to say, ‘Yo, we made it.’ ”

--GARR KLUENDER