'POPS' IS THE TOPS

LAST ANSWER shocked Woodbine with his big score in the Nijinsky Stakes (Grade 2) yesterday.
MARYFIELD became a Grade 1 winner, another one for Canadian-breds, when she won the Ballerina yesterday.
Handicapping contest consumed one and all here on the weekend and lots more contentious issues in racing.

A brief post this morning....

From the San Francisco Chronicle

Suspension for Baze

Larry Stumes, Special to The Chronicle

Monday, August 27, 2007

Jockey Russell Baze was suspended for 15 days and fined $2,500 by the Bay Meadows board of stewards Sunday for violating rules on use of the whip in an incident with an injured horse in Thursday's first race.

Baze was riding 3-to-5 favorite Imperial Eyes, who had a 7-length lead in midstretch of the $8,000 maiden-claiming race. Imperial Eyes took a bad step inside the sixteenth pole but recovered momentarily, and Baze hit him with his whip right-handed. A few strides later, Imperial Eyes had slowed to nearly a stop, and Baze used his whip one more time.

Hold the Peace ran past the injured horse and won by 2 lengths, with Imperial Eyes able to make it to the finish line in second place 4 lengths clear of third-place Jet Brella.

Baze then pulled up Imperial Eyes, who was able to walk into the horse ambulance but later had to be euthanized with a fracture of the cannon bone in his left front leg.

The stewards conducted a 21/2-hour hearing with Baze on Saturday and considered charging him with violations of rules on use of the whip, conduct detrimental to horse racing and animal cruelty.

"We did not find there to be violation of the rules on conduct and animal cruelty, but we can't comment any more because of the 72-hour appeals process," steward and former jockey Darrel McHargue said Sunday.

Baze said he accepts the penalty, which some characterized as too light.

"I'm not going to try to make any excuse for what I did, because there is no excuse for it," he said. "In the heat of the moment, right at the finish line, I made a bad decision. I felt he (Imperial Eyes) was off, but I never felt in great danger of going down or that he could be a hurt horse. I made a bad decision, it's my responsibility and I'll take the punishment for it."

The incident probably received added attention because of the dog-fighting and endangerment charges to which NFL quarterback Michael Vick has agreed to plead guilty.

"I don't believe you can compare it with someone pleading guilty to a felony conviction," McHargue said. "That is not anywhere close to this. The comparison is unfair."

Baze, the winningest jockey ever in North America with 9,826 victories and a member of thoroughbred racing's Hall of Fame, will serve his suspension Sept. 2-16.

"I hope this is not the defining moment in my career," Baze said. "I hope I'll be judged by the right decisions I've made and that I will make in the future. I'm sorry if I was the cause in some way for the horse to suffer any more than necessary. In this day and age of athletes and public figures making public apologies, it can begin to ring hollow. I want people to know that I am truly sorry. Nobody knows how contrite I am in my heart."

Art Sherman, trainer of Imperial Eyes and a former jockey, said he thought Baze's punishment was too severe.

"He's riding a 3-to-5 shot that shied away from the whip the first time," Sherman said by cell phone from Del Mar. "He looked OK, and then, boom. It was so close to the wire. A lot of people are yelling and screaming, but it was a judgment call. No way was Russell Baze being cruel."

GRAND THEFT EQUINE

‘Popadopalos’, ‘Popsie’,whatever name he goes by at the barn – LAST ANSWER is his stage name in the afternoon and the almost-black gelding with the thick white blaze pulled off a stunner yesterday at Woobine.

The $300,000 NIJINSKY STAKES, Grade 2,, was supposed to be another notch on the girth of SKY CONQUEROR, hailed by many as the best grass horse in North America.

Five for five against JAMBALAYA, who went off to Arlington to win the Arlington Million, Sky Conqueror was again ridden by Edagr Prado.

But the race went all wrong for the sleek chestnut 5yo.

Last Answer was allowed to roll by jockey Emile Ramsammy – he opened up 10 lengths – and held on to win while Cloudy’s Knight and Sky Conqueror tried to catch up but they fell short.

The Globe and Mail’s Bev Smith has a nice story on the old-timer and his upset win..

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070827.HORSE27/TPStory/Sports

More on Sunday’s racing including notes on Canadian-breds MARYFIELD and DAAHER winning at Saratoga, tomorrow morning.

The Ontario Farm Managers golf tournament awaits!