Classic Chase: Iwilldoit returns from long absence to win at Warwick
Sam Thomas-trained Iwilldoit returns to win the Classic Chase, 383 days after victory in his last race at the Welsh Grand National.
Month: January 2023
Twins Mauer & Morneau lead the surging team!
Very few teams win 21 of 23 games and still find themselves on the ground floor but that is the case with the Minnesota Twins and the AL Central division. They have won 11 straight but the Tigers and White Sox refuse to let them into the party as we head to the All Star break.
Joe Mauer will part company with his teammate Justin Morneau who was neglected by AL manager Ozzie Guillen when he filled out his all star roster this past weekend. Mauer leads the majors with a ridiculous .391 average and has fought off stomach complications to remain in the lineup. His buddy Morneau has been on fire of late hitting safely in 11 straight games and in 22 of the past 23 games, going 39-for-91 (.429) with 11 homers and 33 RBIs in that span. As mentioned the Twins have won 21 of those 23 games.
The Mets are lucky they are playing in the inept NL East division as they have been less then stellar yesterday. They have been outscored 55-24 in the past 7 games, including Monday’s 11-1 shellacking at he hands of the inept Pirates. Pedro Martinez was originally scheduled to start the series opener against the Pirates but was pushed back because of a sore hip. The Mets aren’t sure if Martinez will start again before the break but manager Willie Randolph said he isn’t concerned about his star right-hander.
The San Francisco Giants have a chance to move into first place in the NL West prior to the break and considering their hitting has been non-existent, manager Felipe Alou must be happy. The Giants, who are 3-2 on their season-high 11-game road trip, will send ace Jason Schmidt (6-3, 2.73 ERA) to the mound in hopes of recording the team’s first four-game winning streak of the season.
San Francisco won five in a row last Sept. 16-21.
Schmidt is 0-1 in his last four starts despite a 3.42 ERA and .235 opponent batting average in that span, as the Giants have provided him with just seven total runs of support in those outings.
Two pitchers who are pulling down a lot of jack oppose each other today at Wrigley Field and both have been awful this year. Andy Pettitte and Mark Prior will try and get untracked for their stumbling teams. Pettitte, a two-time All-Star, allowed five runs — two earned — and 10 hits in 6 1-3 innings of a 5-0 loss to Detroit on Thursday. With Thursday’s defeat, he matched the nine losses he recorded in 33 starts a year ago. Pettitte has not lost 10 in a season since going 15-10 in 2001 with the New York Yankees.
The left-hander is 0-2 with a 6.23 ERA in his last three starts since a June 13 victory over Chicago. Pettitte allowed one run and five hits in seven innings in that 9-2 victory, and is 1-2 with a 3.82 ERA in seven career starts against the Cubs.
Chicago counters with Mark Prior (0-3, 9.00), who looks for his first win of the season and tries to avoid losing four straight starts for the first time in his career. Prior gave up five runs, eight hits and four walks in 5 2-3 innings of a 5-4 loss to Milwaukee on Thursday.
The 25-year-old right-hander has not made it out of the sixth inning in any of his three starts this season. Prior is 4-4 with a 4.35 ERA in 12 career starts against the Astros.
Bob Acton
HBPA Plaintiffs Tell Fifth Circuit New Law ‘Does Not Fix’ HISA’s Problems
As the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals weighs a motion by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority to vacate its recent opinion that HISA is unconstitutional, a plaintiff team led by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) on Friday urged the court not to do that, arguing that a new federal law passed two weeks ago to amend the operative language of HISA “does not fix” three alleged constitutionality issues.
“This Court's opinion identified three distinct problems with HISA: 'An agency does not have meaningful oversight if it does not write the rules, cannot change them, and cannot second-guess their substance,'” the NHBPA and its co-plaintiffs wrote in a Jan. 13 response.
“Congress's recent tweak to HISA fails to fix the second problem and does nothing to address the first problem or the third,” the filing continued.
“Under the amended HISA the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) still cannot initiate new rules and still cannot second-guess their substance beyond 'consistency review.' And though it can now modify promulgated rules, the Authority's rules will govern for a while even if the FTC eventually changes them,” the response stated.
“In addition, the amendment reduces the FTC's oversight by eliminating the commission's power to issue interim final rules [and] ultimately, the overall purpose of HISA remains to delegate legislative power to a private corporation to 'develop and implement' programs to regulate the horseracing industry,” the filing stated.
“The prior [Fifth Circuit] opinion was a correct statement of the law and the facts at the time it was issued, and the Authority has not borne its substantial burden to show the 'extraordinary remedy' of vacatur is equitable in this instance,” the response stated.
The underlying lawsuit was initiated by the NHBPA and 12 of its affiliates against personnel from the HISA Authority and the FTC on Mar. 15, 2021, bringing anti-constitutionality claims under the private-nondelegation doctrine, public nondelegation doctrine, Appointments Clause, and the Due Process Clause.
On Mar. 31, 2022, a U.S. District Court judge dismissed that suit, writing in an order that “despite its novelty, [HISA] as constructed stays within current constitutional limitations as defined by the Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit.”
The HBPA plaintiffs appealed that decision, leading to the Fifth Circuit's reversal on Nov. 18.
But by amending HISA and passing it into law as part of a much broader year-end spending bill, the HISA Authority argued in its Jan. 3, 2023, “motion to vacate” that Congress and the President have done their parts to clear up any lingering constitutional ambiguity, and now the Fifth Circuit is obliged to do its duty to “say what the law is” with regard to the rewritten HISA.
Also on Jan. 13, the state of Texas and its racing commission (both of which had been allowed to join the plaintiffs as “intervenors” with an interest in the outcome), filed a separate response to the HISA Authority's motion to vacate.
“This Court should deny the Authority's motion,” the Texas plaintiffs stated. “Because the Authority tellingly does not assert that Congress's amendment moots this lawsuit…immediate vacatur is not warranted. Instead, as this Court has already remanded the case for further proceedings in the district court, this Court likely should follow its ordinary practice, issue its mandate, and allow the district court to consider the HISA amendment's impact on the merits of this suit in the first instance.”
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Jan. 14 Insights: Pletcher Pair of Uncle Mo Colts Debut at Gulfstream
5th-GP, $84k, Msw, 3yo, 6f, 2:09 p.m. ET
Missourians Robert and Lawana Low purchased SGT. PEPPER (Uncle Mo) for $1.6 million at the 2021 FTSAUG sale. Bred by Bobby Flay Thoroughbreds, he will make his debut sprinting on the dirt with Lasix in South Florida for the Todd Pletcher barn. Sgt. Pepper, the 5-2 morning-line favorite, is a half-brother to GSW Spice Is Nice (Curlin), who fetched $1.05 million from these same connections at the 2018 KEESEP sale. Sgt. Pepper's dam Dame Dorothy (Bernardini), owned and campaigned by Bobby Flay, was herself a GISW. TJCIS PPs.
8th-GP, $84k, Msw, 3yo, 1m, 3:37 p.m. ET
Another Pletcher-trained Uncle Mo colt will head to the post for the first time on Saturday. The 7-2 morning-line favorite KINGSBARNS (Uncle Mo), an $800,000 purchase by Spendthrift Farm at last year's FTFMAR sale, is out of GSP Lady Tapit (Tapit). His female family boasts several black-type winners, including GISW Gozzip Girl (Dynaformer).
The Shug McGaughey-trained Weyhill Road (Quality Road), a $1.6-million KEESEP graduate and half to GISW and successful young sire Girvin (Tale of Ekati), returns to the track after finishing a well-beaten fourth on debut at Keeneland Oct. 21. TJCIS PPs.
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