Tight Spot

This is a story--with a happy ending--about a five-hour rescue. The victim was gray and white and about 2 months old. Somehow, this cuddly creature got herself stuck in a four-inch pipe that extended seven feet into the ground, then went off at an angle. West Valley Animal Care Center Officer Doreen Vail responded to the call of a kitten in distress in the 5500 block of McLennan Avenue in Van Nuys.

Tight Spot, fourth as the 3-2 favorite in Sunday's $322,250 Eddie Read Handicap, will run in the Arlington Million on Sept. 6 at Arlington Park near Chicago. "As far as I can tell, he's going to Arlington," trainer Ron McAnally said. Tight Spot had not raced since March 21, and during the layoff caused by a bruised hoof, there was talk that McAnally would retire last year's turf champion. But McAnally said there no longer is any such thought.

Tight Spot, the defending champion, was given 126 pounds and Golden Pheasant was assigned 123 for the $200,000 American Handicap on Saturday at Hollywood Park. A winner of 10 of his 11 starts on turf, Tight Spot will be racing for the first time since suffering a bruised hoof in May. Trainer Ron McAnally had thought the problem was a career-ending ankle injury, but the deep bruise was discovered and the 5-year-old His Majesty horse resumed training shortly thereafter.

Tight Spot might defend his title in the Arlington Million and win another Eclipse Award after all. Trainer Ron McAnally said Saturday that the 5-year-old His Majesty horse doesn't have a broken right ankle, as was originally thought Thursday. What was discovered was a mere bruise in Tight Spot's right hoof. "He's always had big ankles," McAnally said. "He's had fractures in both ankles, and when he was walking a little off, we thought it was the ankle right away.

Tight Spot and Exbourne, two of the top grass horses in the country, have suffered injuries that will put huge holes in the major weekend events at Hollywood Park. Tight Spot, the 1991 male turf champion, aggravated an ankle injury this week while preparing for Sunday's $100,000 Inglewood Handicap. It was the same joint that gave the 5-year-old son of His Majesty trouble at the end of his 1991 championship season. "With rest, he could run again," trainer Ron McAnally said.

Now that Tight Spot has shown he can handle the Santa Anita turf course, the 1991 Eclipse Award winner will try another track Saturday. Successful in nine of 10 starts on the grass, Tight Spot will leave today for Albany, Calif., where he is scheduled to make his first start on the Golden Gate Fields turf course Saturday in the $200,000 San Francisco Mile.

Patrick and Jacqueline Rombeau face each other along a scarred row of gray visitors' cubicles at Los Angeles County Jail. Separated by a glass panel, they talk on a telephone, speaking in the melodious accents of Provence. The gentle region in the south of France, known for its unhurried life, is the country of Marcel Pagnol. And indeed, Pagnol could have created the Rombeaus as characters in his idyllic works. Patrick, 31, has dancing eyes and a mustache like a small whisk broom.

The Breeders' Cup, a $10-million card of races designed to sort out championships, instead made a three-way muddle out of the horse-of-the-year picture when three contenders eliminated themselves and two horses became candidates for the title Saturday at Churchill Downs. Black Tie Affair, after running unsuccessfully in the six-furlong Breeders' Cup Sprint the last two years, won the 1 1/4-mile, $3-million Classic Saturday by 1 1/4 lengths.

Dan Rather turned 60 on Thursday. He was in Madrid, anchoring CBS' coverage of the Middle East peace conference. But just days before leaving for the historic summit, he sat at breakfast at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and said he wouldn't be surprised if one network and perhaps two network news divisions disappeared "by the end of the '90s."

The defection of In Excess from today's $3-million Breeders' Cup Classic has given horse-of-the-year hopes to trainers who would appear to be thinking wishfully. Bobby Frankel lobbies for Marquetry, who is not even an afterthought in most horse-of-the-year talk. "This is the championship race," Frankel said. "You can't win the championship if you pull out of the seventh game of the World Series."