Race Horse

Fourteen thoroughbreds were dead. And trainer Vic Rail, once famous for his association with a remarkable horse, lay critically ill in the intensive care section of a city hospital. No cause could be established for either. There was speculation that the afflictions could be related, except that medical experts--both human and equine--said it was impossible for a man to catch a disease from a horse.

Billy Hamill comes from a horse racing family. His father, Gordon, is a former jockey who is now the flagman starter for races at Santa Anita. His grandfather, Keith Stucki, is a veteran trainer who saddled Ancient Title when he set a track record at Santa Anita in 1978. The family expected Billy to become a jockey. Except for one thing. "I'm scared to death of horses," Hamill says. Instead, he races motorcycles for a living.

Every morning, Luis Carrasquillo goes to a barn where he feeds and waters thoroughbreds, cleans their stalls and brushes them down. At day's end, he returns to his cell at Wallkill Correctional Facility. Carrasquillo and 10 other inmates at the medium-security state prison in Upstate New York's Ulster County are part of a program in which they care for old, sometimes broken-down race horses that might otherwise be put to death. "The inmates are learning valuable skills," said Deputy Supt.

On the day they were duly licensed by the California Horse Racing Board last September, Dave and Gloria Farris of Northridge entered the harness racing business on the run, with Dave frantically beating closing time at a bank to borrow more than $6,000, which he spent that night on Kalamoun, a horse that hadn't won a race in its life. A week later, both Kalamoun and the Farrises were in the winner's circle. How did Dave feel?

"I got one more, on Friday," a weary Ron McAnally was saying the other day. The 59-year-old trainer was talking about life on the road this year, the trips he has made to get the horses in his high-profile stable to the stakes races they've run. "If it's Friday, this must be the Meadowlands," McAnally could say to himself this week.

John Franks, a Louisiana oilman who won a record four Eclipse awards as an owner of thoroughbred horses, died Wednesday night at Willis-Knighton Pierremont Health Center in Shreveport, La. No cause of death was given. He was 78. Franks, who founded Franks Petroleum in 1957, bought his first horse in 1979 and quickly immersed himself in the sport. Becoming an astute student of bloodlines, Franks bred most of the horses he raced.

A trainer who suspects that his horse was beaten in a race by a drugged horse has said he will ask the California Horse Racing Board to identify the four trainers whose drug positives were dismissed by the board. Lawyer Michael Carney, who represents trainer Frank Veiga, said that Henry Chavez, chairman of the seven-member racing board, will receive a letter next week. "It will contain a demand for full disclosure of these four cases," Carney said.

In the seven years sinc R. D. Hubbard bought two glass companies tottering on the edge of bankruptcy and merged them into AFG Industries Inc., he has built the new firm into the fastest-growing glass company in the United States, earning record profits and raves from industry observers.

Even though Mister Frisky lost for the first time in four California starts and was beaten for the first time in a sprint after 12 victories, those closest to him weren't disappointed here Friday. Making his first start in more than 14 months after almost dying last year, the 4-year-old Marsayas colt finished third, beaten by six lengths, as the 6-5 favorite. Burn Annie won the $50,000 allowance race, beating Deposit Ticket by a head in 1:08 2/5 for his 11th victory in 18 races.

In the paddock at Santa Anita, trainer Bob Baffert saw his jockey, Corey Nakatani, with his whip and said: "Didn't you get my message? We need a magic wand, not a whip." Nakatani, who had already won three races on Saturday's card, was riding Wooden Phone for Baffert in the $190,800 San Fernando Breeders' Cup Stakes, the race that marked the 2001 debut for Tiznow, the Breeders' Cup Classic winner and soon to be named 2000's horse of the year.