Races

A few low, indecipherable noises escaped from the table where Shug McGaughey, trainer of even-money Preakness favorite Orb, sat during the post-position draw Wednesday. The horse had drawn the dreaded No. 1 gate, meaning eight horses will be closing him in as they race toward the shortest path to the first turn. McGaughey, though, was not among those who thought this meant anything significant. "Some people groaned," he said. "I didn't groan. " McGaughey acknowledged a preference to start on the outside of the field - where the jockey and horse can watch the field open up - but said he thought drawing the rail simply didn't matter in a nine-horse field running over a mile and three-sixteenths.

Of the many ways in which independent expenditures distort modern political life, among the most destructive is the obliteration of candidate accountability. The campaign for mayor of Los Angeles offers, unfortunately, the latest reminder. FOR THE RECORD: LAX runway: A May 15 editorial about advertising in the L.A. mayoral race said that Wendy Greuel supports moving the north runway at LAX. In fact, she believes that airport authorities and local residents should seek a compromise.

Former lawmaker Mike Feuer and City Councilman Dennis Zine continue to hold leads in their races for citywide Los Angeles offices, new polling released Monday showed. In polling conducted April 29 through May 7 by the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State L.A., Feuer, a former member of the state Assembly and L.A. City Council, led City Atty. Carmen Trutanich, who is seeking reelection in next week's balloting, 35 to 24%, with 41% of voters still undecided.

L.A.'s 9th City Council District is among the poorest in the city, taking in a stretch of South Los Angeles where the median household income is less than $30,000 per year. Yet despite persistent economic woes, the district has become a hot spot for expensive campaign contributions in this year's election, with special interests from across the state spending big in the race to replace termed-out Councilwoman Jan Perry. Labor unions, businesses, billboard companies, healthcare interests and others have spent $900,000 on unlimited "independent expenditures" for state Sen. Curren Price (D-Los Angeles)

Matt Kenseth passed his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch with 13 laps to go to win his first Southern 500 on Saturday night at Darlington, S.C. Busch had the strongest car for much of the race and led for 265 of the 367 laps at Darlington Raceway. But his machine appeared to fall away at the worst possible time and he faded to sixth. Denny Hamlin completed his first full race since suffering a compression fracture in a vertebra in his lower back on March 24. He finished second.

With its announcement Thursday, Hollywood Park did little to refute the theory that horse racing is a sport in need of hospice. They raced at the Inglewood track Friday, but it wasn't business as usual. Nor will it be the rest of this meeting and the track's final one, which ends Dec. 22. For people in the business, and fans of the sport, the next six months of racing at the place universally known as Hollypark will be an emotional saddle sore. The bulldozers are at the gate.

ESCONDIDO - The eighth Amgen Tour of California begins at 11:15 a.m. Sunday in Escondido, and for the first time the largest cycling stage race in the United States is traveling from south to north. The 750-mile trip will end May 19 in Santa Rosa. Matt Bettenhausen, vice president and chief security officer for race owner AEG Worldwide, joined cyclists and race officials at a Friday news conference, where he discussed increased security for this year's event in the wake of the bombings at the Boston Marathon.

TEHRAN - The run-up to Iran's June presidential election took a dramatic turn Saturday with last-minute candidacy announcements by two controversial political figures: former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, top aide to outgoing incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the final moments before the five-day registration period expired, Rafsanjani and Mashaei arrived via separate entrances at the Interior Ministry, where all would-be candidates were required to sign up by 6 p.m. Saturday.

Wendy Greuel called on Eric Garcetti on Friday night to stop all negative advertising in the last 11 days of the Los Angeles mayor's race, a challenge that her rival dismissed as "disingenuous" for a candidate whose campaign is effectively "bankrupt. " "OK, my campaign consultants are probably not going to like this, but I say no more negative ads," Greuel told Garcetti in a debate aired live on KABC-TV (Channel 7). Garcetti said he had already endured "eight weeks of pummeling" by Greuel, including an accusation that he was "causing cancer for children" with a lease of oil drilling rights beneath his family's property in Beverly Hills.

Everyone knew the day was coming and now it's a reality. After 75 years of horse racing, Betfair Hollywood Park will end its operations following the final race of its autumn meeting Dec. 22. The words "sad day" were repeated often Thursday afternoon at the Inglewood track, where owners, trainers, jockeys and fans reacted somberly to the news. The official announcement came in a letter from track President Jack Liebau sent to the California Horse Racing Board on Wednesday informing them that Hollywood Park Land Co. would not be requesting any 2014 racing dates.