Fair Grounds Under Water

The Fair Grounds, one of the country’s oldest racetracks and located not far from famed Bourbon Street, didn’t escape the devastating flooding that has left New Orleans paralyzed after Hurricane Katrina. Churchill Downs Inc., which bought the bankrupt Fair Grounds for $47 million in October, now has a track with a running surface that is underwater.

There have been reports of structural damage to the grandstand, which was rebuilt in the 1990s, and a roof may have to be replaced. There is a possibility, so far unconfirmed by Churchill officials, that the next Fair Grounds meet -- scheduled to open Nov. 24, Thanksgiving Day -- will have to be run at another track. The three other thoroughbred tracks in Louisiana did not suffer major damage.

No racing was being conducted, and no horses were on the grounds at the Fair Grounds when the hurricane struck Monday, resulting in floodwaters that have brought chaos and death to New Orleans.

Racing at the Fair Grounds has been halted twice before -- by fire, in 1919 and 1993. The ’93 blaze leveled the grandstand, which was rebuilt at a cost of $34.5 million. The work took four years, during which the track operated, with customers sitting in tents. The Fair Grounds opened in 1872, which makes it the country’s third-oldest track, after Saratoga in upstate New York and Pimlico in Baltimore.

Kentucky Derby winners Black Gold, Whirlaway, Grindstone, Real Quiet, War Emblem and Funny Cide have run at the Fair Grounds. Black Gold and Grindstone won the Louisiana Derby there before going on to capture the Kentucky Derby.

George Steinbrenner and Bob McNair, horse owners and, respectively, the principal owners of the New York Yankees and the Houston Texans, said their teams will be contributing to the funds that are being set up to help the flood victims.

Steinbrenner said the Yankees would be contributing $1 million, and McNair said the Texans would match, up to $1 million, any contributions that come in from their fans.

Officials at Evangeline Downs, near Lafayette, La., said that they would contribute revenue from Sunday’s racing card to the Red Cross on behalf of New Orleans’ flood victims. Evangeline is about 150 miles northeast of New Orleans.

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Tucked Away, longshot winner of the Clement L. Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 7, fractured both sesamoid bones in her right foreleg during a grass workout Wednesday and has been retired.

Tucked Away, who was trained by Paddy Gallagher, was preparing to run in Sunday’s Solana Beach Handicap, a race she won last year. A 5-year-old mare, Tucked Away won five of 29 starts and earned $582,956. Surgery is planned.

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Edgar Prado rode Saint Liam in nine consecutive races, winning three important stakes in Florida and Kentucky, but his second-place ride in the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga apparently cost him the mount on the horse.

According to the Daily Racing Form, William Warren, the owner of Saint Liam, decided to replace Prado with Jerry Bailey when his horse runs in the Woodward at Belmont Park on Sept. 10. Prado and Bailey are second and third, respectively, on the national money list, well back of the leader, John Velazquez.

Prado brought Saint Liam from far back in the Whitney, but they lost by a neck to Commentator.

There was a fast early pace, but some horseplayers thought that Prado should have had Saint Liam closer to Commentator down the backstretch.

Bailey will be at Del Mar on Saturday to ride Intercontinental in the $200,000 Palomar Handicap.

Others in the six-horse field are Ticker Tape, Katdogawn, Flip Flop, Cotopaxi and Amorama, who won the Del Mar Oaks in 2004 and the John C. Mabee Handicap this year. Katdogawn finished second in the 1 1/16 -mile Palomar last year.