No Arabian Knights to Save the Day

Tuesday was opening night at the annual yearling sales in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Alas, the net of $12.54 million for 53 thoroughbreds was down 3% from last year’s first-night total of $12.92 million for 38.

It would be a different story if the Maktoum brothers were there.

Hamdan al-Maktoum and his brothers, Maktoum and Mohammed, members of the royal family of the United Arab Emirates, stayed home because of the Mideast conflict.

Cot Campbell, owner of Preakness winner Summer Squall, told the Associated Press: “They’re an enormous force at the sale.”

At Saratoga last year, Hamdan al-Maktoum bought 16 yearlings for $7.8 million, nearly one-quarter of the sale’s $31.8-million total.

Add Sheiks: AP reported that in recent years, the Maktoums’ arrival at the Albany airport became a media and spectator event, with crowds gathering for a glimpse of the sheiks’ private plane, a converted passenger jet capable of carrying horses.

Trivia time: Which three major league outfielders were teammates longer than any other three?

Emotional rescue: During Thursday’s telecast of the PGA Championship, ESPN broadcaster Jim Kelly called Hale Irwin “the man who brought the high-five back to the PGA Tour.”

Coming soon to ESPN: Jim Kelly’s 60-minute special documenting the history of the high-five on the PGA Tour.

Write your Congressman: Times staff writer Curtis Eichelberger was there when Oakland Athletics’ right fielder Jose Canseco was handed his All-Star game check this week.

Said Canseco, looking at the figure: “Taxes. They’re killing me. They just keep taking it away.”

King-dumb: From Jeff Hasen of United Press International, reviewing Larry King’s work as TBS’ anchorman during the Goodwill Games:

“From the first TBS telecast to the last, King more closely resembled Ed Sullivan than Jim McKay. He cheered, lauded, shilled. He saluted every senseless feature, every babbling reporter--there were many. . . .

“King probably won’t have anything to do with TNT’s limited coverage of the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville, France. Someone else will have to tell us that luge is another great sport never seen in Brooklyn.”

Trivia answer: Left fielder Bob Skinner, center fielder Bill Virdon and right fielder Roberto Clemente, with the Pittsburgh Pirates for eight years, 1956-63.

Quotebook: Actor-race driver Paul Newman, 65, on 22-year-old Trans-Am partner Scott Sharp: “Young kids like Scott think about winning. I think about whether I’m going to have a pulse.”