Horse Trainer

Burton Sipp, exotic-animal keeper and once one of the nation's most successful horse trainers, was sentenced to five years of probation and fined $7,500 yesterday in Burlington County Superior Court for witness tampering. Sipp, 42, of Springfield Township, Burlington County, stood silently in the Mount Holly courtroom as Judge Cornelius P. Sullivan pronounced sentence. Sipp must pay the fine, the maximum amount under law, by Aug. 15. In June, as part of a plea agreement, Sipp admitted that he tried to prevent a witness from testifying that the horse trainer had committed insurance fraud.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It was a Monday morning in Dubai, a few hours before dawn. In New Mexico, it was still Sunday afternoon and one of Bob Baffert's horses had just won the Sunland Oaks. Congratulatory texts woke him so he decided to check out one of his horses in the Sunland Derby. He fired up a laptop to watch online. Baffert, 59, was feeling something in his chest he knew he was not supposed to be feeling. If he was alone, he feels certain he would have been in denial and just ignored the chest pain.

Burton Sipp, once one of the nation's most successful horse trainers, pleaded guilty yesterday in Burlington County Superior Court to charges of witness-tampering. Sipp, 42, of Springfield Township, Burlington County, admitted that he tried to prevent a witness from testifying that the horse trainer had committed insurance fraud. In exchange for the plea, charges were dropped that had accused of Sipp of inflating the value of racehorses, which died mysteriously, to collect insurance money.

Jack Smith Sr., 66, a widely known harness racer and horse trainer whose career spanned five decades, died of a heart attack Sunday at Zurbrugg Memorial Hospitals, Rancocas Valley Division, Willingboro. Mr. Smith, who lived all his life on Walnut Farm in Florence, began racing when he was 16. His father, Florence butcher John R. Smith, allowed him to drop out of high school to handle his small stable and to race. While still a teenager, Mr. Smith raced on the popular Trenton, Allentown and Bloomsburg fair circuit.

Dennis "Goose" Heimer, 43, the all-time leading trainer at Philadelphia Park who ranked among the area's best during his two decades of racing, died Thursday night at his home in Pennington, N.J., north of Trenton, apparently after a heart attack. Remembered as a sharp, straight-talking, unpretentious leader in the Philadelphia-area racing circuit, Mr. Heimer racked up 767 victories at Philadelphia Park, the highest number of overall victories in its history. He also accumulated the largest number of stakes victories, at 57. He won six training titles.

Burton K. Sipp's violations of the rules of horse racing over the years fill a single-spaced computer printout sheet four feet long. His penalties range from a $25 fine for failing to properly dispose of manure to a worldwide ban on racing horses or even attending racetracks, imposed in 1984. They include a 60-day suspension for administering a prohibited pain- killing medication to a horse before a race. Other racing citations include entering horses in races they were ineligible to run in; using forged health certificates to run unhealthy horses in races, and failing to maintain up-to- date ownership records.

Carolyn Marshall, a Cinnaminson horse trainer and riding instructor, thought her plan to rehabilitate the old Barclay Farm equestrian center in Evesham, one of South Jersey's few indoor riding arenas, was an idea the township could not refuse. With a little "spit and polish," Marshall said, the township-owned arena and barns could be opened to the public for riding lessons, boarding and shows. It could be a distinguishing Evesham landmark. Best of all, she said, it could be a moneymaker for the township.

ALMOST AS soon as horse trainer Tony Dutrow bought the filly for $95,000 in 2010, his wife Kim knew the name. She could only be Grace Hall. One of her owners was Mike Caruso, the three-time NCAA champion Lehigh wrestler from the mid-1960s, a man whose high school and college record was 141-1. Then as now, the Lehigh wrestling venue was intimidating Grace Hall, named after Eugene Grace, the president of Bethlehem Steel and a great Lehigh baseball player. "I've lived in Bethlehem the last 50 years since I came to Lehigh," said Caruso, who went to St. Benedict's in Newark, N. J. He was on the Lehigh Board of Trustees for 14 years.

HARRISBURG - Kelsey Lefever was well-known in the Pennsylvania horse world. The 24-year-old horse trainer from Chester County competed at the Devon Horse Show and traded show ponies and draft horses on the Internet. At Penn National, near Harrisburg, one of the biggest racetracks in the state, she schmoozed thoroughbred owners, telling them she would find great homes for their horses when their racing careers were over. In fact, state police allege, Lefever was selling the horses - as many as 120, by her admission - to contractors for a Canadian slaughterhouse, where they were butchered and shipped overseas for human consumption.

Around the barns, horse trainer Dee Curry calls herself a "blue-jeans-and-boots kind of girl. " But in the paddock at a major racetrack, while she helps her riders into the stirrups before their races, Curry is more often wearing something a little more feminine: business slacks or perhaps even a dress. "It's about time I bring a little fashion sense to horse racing," Curry said. "People should know this used to be a very pretty sport. " Curry, 35, is trying to bring more than color coordination to area racetracks such as Philadelphia Park and Monmouth.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It was a Monday morning in Dubai, a few hours before dawn. In New Mexico, it was still Sunday afternoon and one of Bob Baffert's horses had just won the Sunland Oaks. Congratulatory texts woke him so he decided to check out one of his horses in the Sunland Derby. He fired up a laptop to watch online. Baffert, 59, was feeling something in his chest he knew he was not supposed to be feeling. If he was alone, he feels certain he would have been in denial and just ignored the chest pain.

ALMOST AS soon as horse trainer Tony Dutrow bought the filly for $95,000 in 2010, his wife Kim knew the name. She could only be Grace Hall. One of her owners was Mike Caruso, the three-time NCAA champion Lehigh wrestler from the mid-1960s, a man whose high school and college record was 141-1. Then as now, the Lehigh wrestling venue was intimidating Grace Hall, named after Eugene Grace, the president of Bethlehem Steel and a great Lehigh baseball player. "I've lived in Bethlehem the last 50 years since I came to Lehigh," said Caruso, who went to St. Benedict's in Newark, N. J. He was on the Lehigh Board of Trustees for 14 years.

Almost as soon as horse trainer Tony Dutrow bought the filly for $95,000 in 2010, his wife Kim knew the name. She could only be Grace Hall. One of her owners was Mike Caruso, the three-time NCAA champion Lehigh wrestler from the mid-1960s, a man whose high school and college record was 141-1. Then as now, the Lehigh wrestling venue was intimidating Grace Hall, named after Eugene Grace, the president of Bethlehem Steel and a great Lehigh baseball player. "I've lived in Bethlehem the last 50 years since I came to Lehigh," said Caruso, who went to St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, N.J. He was on the Lehigh board of trustees for 14 years.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Horse trainer Michael Matz woke up Sunday about 4 a.m. and, as he always does, looked at his phone. He's got an app on the phone attached to a camera outside the stall of his big horse, Union Rags. "He was just laying down in the stall, laying there with his head on the side, just really resting," Matz said later Sunday morning. "When he's like that, he really takes care of himself well. " On Saturday, Union Rags had finished third as the 2-5 favorite in the Florida Derby.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Horse trainer Michael Matz woke up Sunday about 4 a.m. and, as he always does, looked at his phone. He's got an app on the phone attached to a camera outside the stall of his big horse, Union Rags. "He was just laying down in the stall, laying there with his head on the side, just really resting," Matz said later Sunday morning. "When he's like that, he really takes care of himself well. " On Saturday, Union Rags had finished third as the 2-5 favorite in the Florida Derby.

HARRISBURG - Kelsey Lefever was well-known in the Pennsylvania horse world. The 24-year-old horse trainer from Chester County competed at the Devon Horse Show and traded show ponies and draft horses on the Internet. At Penn National, near Harrisburg, one of the biggest racetracks in the state, she schmoozed thoroughbred owners, telling them she would find great homes for their horses when their racing careers were over. In fact, state police allege, Lefever was selling the horses - as many as 120, by her admission - to contractors for a Canadian slaughterhouse, where they were butchered and shipped overseas for human consumption.

CARL HANFORD trained five-time Horse of the Year Kelso (1960-64). Horse and trainer often spent their summers at Delaware Park. Carl's wife, Millie, was the track's paddock attendant for nearly 30 years. Their daughter, Gail, is a DelPark trainer. Carl, 95, died Sunday morning at his Delaware home. Millie passed away in 2005. So what happens in yesterday's first race at Delaware? M's Angel, trained by Gail and making her third lifetime start, won by 5 3/4 lengths. Horse racing is very much a sport about karma.

Linda Toscano has been in the winner's circle at the Meadowlands Racetrack more than any other female trainer. Earning more than $10 million in purses, Toscano has become comfortable there, but the winner's circle at Saturday's 86th edition of the Hambletonian would be foreign territory. Taking home the winner's share of the $1.5 million purse would make Toscano the first female trainer to win the Hambletonian, yet facing 85 years of history doesn't seem to faze her. "They always ask me the gender thing," Toscano said Tuesday at the news conference for the Hambletonian draw.

JUAN CARLOS GUERRERO arrived from Mexico when he was 14, hoping to get an education. He ended up at the race track. In the next quarter-century, he got a doctorate in horse. In 2010 and 2011, the trainer has put up unprecedented numbers at Parx Racing, winning with 40 percent of his starters. This being horse racing, nobody puts up those kinds of numbers without significant skepticism. The assumption is that Guerrero must have some kind of pharmaceutical edge. The problem with assumptions, of course, is that they are not facts.