In This State, That’s the Ticket

Fast horses, smooth bourbon and good basketball players are Kentucky traditions. Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., has two out of three, but what does a track do when it’s running the big race of the season at the same time that the University of Kentucky basketball team, a statewide religion, is playing in the Final Four?

Coping the best way it can, Turfway is offering a 1998-99 season ticket to every fan who attends Saturday’s running of the $600,000 Jim Beam Stakes--providing Kentucky beats Stanford in the NCAA semifinals.

A season racing ticket sells for $300. Jerry Carroll, co-owner of Turfway, figures that if the crowd numbers 20,000, as it did a year ago, and the track has to “pay off,” the promotion would have a hypothetical value of $6 million.

The track will stay open long after the Jim Beam has been run, so fans can watch the rest of the game on many of Turfway’s 500 TV monitors. “What we might have is the biggest sports bar around,” Carroll said.

The 1 1/8-mile Jim Beam could be another ticket--a ticket to Churchill Downs, 100 miles to the south, for the Kentucky Derby on May 2. Eleven 3-year-olds will line up Saturday, all of them trying to duplicate what Lil E. Tee did in 1992, when he won both the Beam and the Derby.

The 8-5 morning-line favorite is undefeated Event Of The Year, but he’s still an unknown quantity, having run only three races, all at Bay Meadows. Event Of The Year’s breeders and owners, John and Betty Mabee of San Diego, thought enough of the Seattle Slew colt to pay a $30,000 supplementary fee to make him eligible for the Beam. First place is worth $360,000.

Jerry Hollendorfer, who trains most of the horses in Northern California for the Mabees, said that if Event Of The Year runs in the Derby, Saturday’s race would be his final prep for Louisville. That’s a bold plan. The last Derby winner with fewer than five previous starts was the filly Regret in 1915. In 1982, Air Forbes Won went into the Derby undefeated in four races. He finished seventh, his career ending after two more non-winning starts.

“Bob Baffert proved last year [with Silver Charm] that you can win the Derby if you’ve got a horse peaking at the right time,” Hollendorfer said. “You have to judge horses individually, and I think I’ll have enough in him with this race. If he runs well Saturday, we’ll go to Churchill Downs [to train] right after the race.”

Event Of The Year, not sold as a yearling because of a cataract that blinded him in his right eye, underwent surgery and has 100% vision now, according to Hollendorfer. He ran only once as a 2-year-old, in October, then didn’t race again until February. In his last start, his first around two turns, Event Of The Year won the El Camino Real Derby by 3 1/2 lengths.

“He had some minor problems after his first race,” Hollendorfer said, “and I wasn’t able to bear down on him. But he always looked like a horse that could get a distance, and he’s a sound horse now. The last race was the turning point. When he turned for home in the El Camino, I thought he might be a Derby horse.”

Russell Baze, who has ridden Event Of The Year in his three wins, will be aboard again Saturday. Baze, involved in a disqualification last week at Bay Meadows, was scheduled to start a five-day suspension today, which would have prevented him from riding at Turfway, but he obtained a court stay Tuesday while he appeals the stewards’ ruling.

Nite Dreamer, second to Comic Strip in the Louisiana Derby, is 5-1 on the morning line. He drew the rail, just inside Event Of The Year. Outside Hollendorfer’s horse, in order, will come Mr. Freeze, Sorcerer, Daniel My Brother, Yukon Pete, Yarrow Brae, Silver Launch, Truluck, Time Limit and Heart Surgeon. Daniel My Brother, who’ll be ridden by Chris McCarron for the first time, has won a minor stake over the Turfway strip and is 9-2. Time Limit, trained by Wayne Lukas, is 5-1 and will be ridden by Shane Sellers. Lukas will also run Yarrow Brae, who is 10-1 with Laffit Pincay riding.

Yukon Pete and Sorcerer will run as an entry for millionaire owner Jim McIngvale, whose revolving door of trainers recently landed Jack Van Berg, the Hall of Fame conditioner who won the Derby and the Preakness with Alysheba in 1987. McIngvale has gone from Nick Zito to Van Berg in the last month, with Steve Moyer and Leonard “Grubb” Atkinson in between. Atkinson, the stable night watchman, had a trainer’s license and saddled a few of McIngvale’s horses before Van Berg came on board.

Horse Racing Notes

A jury in Superior Court in Inglewood has found two veterinarians negligent in the treatment of the stakes-winning Latin American and awarded the owners of the horse $600,000 in damages. According to testimony, Latin American was given antibiotic injections after he won the Californian Stakes at Hollywood Park in 1993. The owners’ witnesses said that a jugular vein was pierced and Latin American didn’t win another race, running only twice. The defendants were Hector Prida and Helmuth Von Bleucher. Latin American’s owners were Warren Williamson, Mike Jarvis and trainer Bob Marshall. Steve Schwartz, the attorney for the veterinarians, said Thursday that they would appeal. Latin American, now a 10-year-old, stood at stud in Kentucky for two years before being moved to Brazil.

The field for the $4-million Dubai World Cup on Saturday may be cut to nine horses after a training injury to Oxalagu. The German contender was lame with a bruised left front foot Thursday, with his trainer, Andreas Schutz, suspecting that he stepped on a golf ball. There is a nine-hole course on the infield at the Dubai track.