Dave Gall

About 7,389 wins ago, jockey Dave Gall was stranded 50 miles outside Phoenix, his 10-year-old jalopy a worthless heap. This was 1959, when Gall was a teenager and when a gallon of gas wasn't more expensive than a hamburger. "I had left Bay Meadows," Gall said, "and I was headed for a track someplace on the East Coast, but I wasn't sure exactly where. I didn't have much money, and any time I'd see a sign for gas less than 20 cents, I'd stop and fill up."

About 7,389 wins ago, jockey Dave Gall was stranded 50 miles outside Phoenix, his 10-year-old jalopy a worthless heap. This was 1959, when Gall was a teenager and when a gallon of gas wasn't more expensive than a hamburger. "I had left Bay Meadows," Gall said, "and I was headed for a track someplace on the East Coast, but I wasn't sure exactly where. I didn't have much money, and any time I'd see a sign for gas less than 20 cents, I'd stop and fill up."

Earlie Fires rode into the history books as the 11th jockey to win 5,000 races, then praised the horses that helped him along the way. "You get good stock and you ride as well as you possibly can," Fires said after reaching the 5,000 mark Sunday at Arlington International Racecourse. "You're no better than the horse you ride." His 5,000th win came atop Tex's Zing in the ninth race. "I don't know where my career is going from here," Fires said. "I haven't thought about 6,000, or even 5,001."

Boxer Randie Carver died Tuesday, two days after losing consciousness in a North American Boxing Federation super-middleweight title defense at North Kansas City, Mo. He was 24. Carver, who had been in critical condition since undergoing emergency brain surgery after the fight late Sunday, went down in the 10th round of a 12-round bout with Kabary Salem. Family and friends had kept vigil while Carver was on life support. "We are pretty shaken, of course," said Sharon White, his aunt.

If Bobby Frankel had his way, Bertrando wouldn't have run in the $217,800 San Fernando Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday. But owners Ed Nahem and Marshall Naify wanted the 4-year-old son of Skywalker to run in the second leg of the Charles H. Strub Series, so he was one of eight starters on yet another rainy day in Arcadia. The way it turned out, the owners knew best--at least this time.

One of the milestones in Eddie Delahoussaye's career was the day in 1982 when he rode a gray horse, Gato Del Sol, to victory in the Kentucky Derby for trainer Eddie Gregson. Delahoussaye reached another milestone Sunday at Del Mar, and again Gregson and a gray horse were involved. The race was worth only $25,000 instead of Gato Del Sol's $551,100 Derby, but 4,000 victories still is impressive.

On the day after Christmas in 1966, Laffit Pincay, three days short of his 20th birthday, rode his first winner at Santa Anita. The 2-year-old colt, at 5-1, was named Rising Market, and there on the favored runner-up, a nose short at the wire, was Bill Shoemaker. Sometime early next year, as sure as Panama has a canal, Pincay figures to be nosing out Shoemaker again, only this time it won't be in a mere $7,000 six-furlong allowance race. Most likely at the same Santa Anita, Pincay will ride his 8,834th winner, and one of the most durable records in sports will fall: Shoemaker's 8,833 victories.