Fire Kills as Many as 26 Thoroughbreds in Kentucky

A predawn fire engulfed a barn at Ellis Park race track in Henderson, Ky., Monday, killing at least two dozen thoroughbreds.

The cause of the fire was being investigated.

Stable hands ran through the blazing barn and released some horses so they could run to safety. One groom was slightly burned trying to free the horses.

The runner-up at the Kentucky Derby, Tejano Run, was in a barn away from the fire and was not hurt.

Richard Schnaars, the track’s vice president and general manager, put the number of dead at 24 to 26 horses, including two that were destroyed because of injuries.

Schnaars said he could not immediately stimate the value of the horses killed. “You have million-dollar horses and you have $5,000 horses,” he said.

Two of the dead included Deal Ya and Coax For a Kiss, both of whom won races Sunday at Ellis Park, Schnaars said.

Jurisprudence

Three current and former Idaho State football players were charged with statutory rape and ordered to appear in district court in Pocatello, Ida., for arraignment next week.

District Judge Peter McDermott released the three on their own recognizance.

Ike Johnson, 22, and Thomas Washington, 21, both starters on the 1994 team, were charged with one count of statutory rape each, and Derrick Carter, 22, who quit the team after the ninth game last season, was charged with two counts. All three face maximum penalties of life in prison.

The alleged rapes, which occurred between February and April, involved 14-year-old girls.

NBA players Tyrone Hill and Brian Grant, who played at Xavier of Ohio, pleaded innocent in Cincinnati to charges related to a run-in with police officers. Hill, 27, of the Cleveland Cavaliers, was charged with resisting the arrest of another person and disorderly conduct, police said.

Grant, 23, of the Sacramento Kings, was charged with resisting arrest. The players were arrested at 3:30 a.m. Saturday near the University of Cincinnati, along with two other people.

University of Florida defensive end Johnie Church was charged with battery in Gainesville, Fla., after his wife complained that he “threw” her around their bedroom.

Basketball

Billy McKinney, who resigned as Detroit’s vice president of player operations in April, joined the Seattle SuperSonics as vice president of basketball operations.

McKinney, 40, has spent the last nine years as a coach, scout and administrator with Minnesota, Chicago and the Pistons.

The effort by some NBA stars to overturn the league’s salary cap was put on hold when the National Labor Relations Board voted to seek a stay of a pending antitrust suit in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

The group claims that the salary cap and draft are illegal because the previous labor contract expired and the union no longer represents a majority of players.

The Final Four of the preseason and postseason National Invitation Tournaments will be held at Madison Square Garden for at least two more years, it was announced.

Names in the News

The Mighty Ducks bought out the contracts of defensemen Tom Kurvers and Myles O’Connor and right wing Jim Thomson, General Manager Jack Ferreira said, ending a process that began when the team offered the players termination contracts last month. . . . The St. Louis Blues acquired 36-year-old defenseman Jay Wells from the New York Rangers for defenseman Doug Lidster, who came from the Rangers last year.

Mark McCumber beat Corey Pavin, 1 up, and Loren Roberts defeated Paul Azinger, 2 and 1, in the semifinals of the United States Regional of the World Championship of Golf at Kohler, Wis. . . . Danny Sullivan was in good condition after surgery to mend a fractured pelvis sustained in Sunday’s Marlboro 500 at Brooklyn, Mich., a hospital spokeswoman said.

Gloria Chadwick, U.S. Olympic Training Center director and a pioneer in advancing women’s cross-country skiing, died of cancer at Lake Placid, N.Y. She was 63.