Race Track

The thoroughbreds tend to grab the glory - sometimes even during the harness racing season at Garden State Park - thanks to the magic of simulcast racing. But those who love the slower pace of harness racing say the ancient sport just doesn't get the respect it deserves. Subtlety is the key, they say. And whatever the sport, a winning ticket is what counts.

An Atlanta development firm wants to turn part of the Garden State Park race track into a "town center" of diverse shops, "not just another strip mall," the company president told a group of residents at a meeting yesterday. New Market Development Co. Ltd., the prospective buyer of the 56-acre site, met with potential Cherry Hill neighbors to describe company plans for the land that now serves as the track's overflow parking lot. The financially troubled track has been eager to sell the Route 70 site for more than a year, and last week New Market agreed to buy the land if the township approved its proposed 500,000-square-foot retail center.

Garden State Park, the Cherry Hill race track that lost $19 million during its first two years, opens its third thoroughbred season tonight amid hopes that an austerity plan, a measure of whimsy and an infusion of non-racing activities will nudge the track into the black. And to bolster that prospect, about 70 area business and political leaders agreed yesterday to press the New Jersey Transit Authority to add a Garden State Park stop to the so-called Gambler's Express, the train that is to whisk passengers between Philadelphia and Atlantic City beginning in 1989.

The state's evaluation of a proposal to add a second Cherry Hill stop to the Philadelphia-to-Atlantic City train line will not be finished until late this summer, about three months behind the originally scheduled completion date. A task force of Cherry Hill-area business people and local officials recommended this spring that the New Jersey Transit Authority build a station at Garden State Park race track to help improve the beleaguered track's economic fortunes. Although reluctant to spend the estimated $10 million such a station would cost, the transit authority agreed to study the proposal.

In the closed society of the backstretch, small tragedies are cause for generous expressions of sympathy. But when there is a catastrophe, such as the fire yesterday that killed at least 45 horses at Belmont Park race track, grooms, trainers and others who work on the backstretch feel a common loss. "Around the race track, it's like a part of your world going up, your life and all you strive for," said Maureen Mitchell, a groom who works for trainer Gene Martello. "It doesn't have to be a million-dollar horse.

Two proposals that backers say are crucial to the health of race-track gambling in New Jersey - Sunday racing and simulcasting of races to casinos - are out of the gate and rounding the first turn in the legislature. A key Assembly panel yesterday approved a measure to put a question on the Nov. 6 ballot asking voters whether they would change the state constitution to permit gamblers in Atlantic City to watch horse races on giant screens inside casinos and wager on them. The measure now goes to the full Assembly.

Penn National Race Course faces a loss of approximately $25,000 after judges inadvertently placed a horse who had finished 10th in second place after Saturday night's final race at the Grantville, Pa., track. The error occurred when Candy's Bullet, a 37-1 long shot, won the 10th race by a half-length and paid $77 to win. Finishing in a dead heat for second were Bold Exuberance and Bold Change. However, the placing judges said that the tie was between Bold Exuberance and Path of Fire, who in fact had finished 10th.

The signs were hard to miss. Hanging across each of the main entrances to Garden State Park race track were huge red, white, blue and orange billboards proclaiming the track as the site for the New Jersey State Fair, a 10-day event that ended Sunday. A lesser known fact: Cherry Hill High School East held its senior prom at Garden State Park this year. Moorestown Friends held its prom there last year. What's more, the track this year has been the scene of countless weddings, bar mitzvahs, theme dances, product exhibits and other indoor and outdoor events that have nothing to do with horses.

Jerry Bailey was minutes removed from what had to be the biggest moment of his life. He waved his whip when Sea Hero hit the wire first in the Kentucky Derby. He calmly analyzed the winning move he made at the top of the stretch. He answered all the questions. Still, something was missing. Bailey, one of America's great riders, had nobody to celebrate his first Derby victory with. His wife, Suzee, and 5-month old son, Justin, were back in New York, watching and waiting for him to return.

An Atlanta developer has agreed to buy a part of the parking area of the Garden State Park race track in Cherry Hill and plans to build a large shopping center on the site. International Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. of East Windsor, N.J., said it had agreed to sell 56 acres of its 285-acre race-track site to New Market Development Co. Ltd. of Atlanta for about $20 million. ITB also has an option to buy part of the project. New Market plans to develop a 550,000-square-foot shopping center on the land, which fronts on Route 70, just east of Cornell Avenue.

The Derby is not run for Mitt Romney's "47 percent," even if many of them jam the infield and sell all those mint juleps and corn dogs. It is run for the swells who cram the boxes high above the race track, throwing $100 bills at mutuel tellers like revelers tossing confetti in Times Square on New Year's Eve. It is decadent and depraved and outrageous, with women decked out in hats that look like skyscrapers and men willing to part with their senses...

LONG POND, Pa. — Even the best racers need luck now and then. With the frustrating Sprint Cup season Jeff Gordon has endured, he needed luck — as much as anyone. Lady Luck rained Gordon's way Sunday at Pocono Raceway. When race leader Jimmie Johnson took out Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin on a restart on lap 91, Gordon inherited the lead in the Pennsylvania 400. Then rain began to drench the mountain area for the second time. A few minutes later the scheduled 160-lap race was officially called with 98 laps completed and Gordon was a winner for the first time this season.

BROOKLYN, Mich. - The last time anyone was this fast in qualifying in NASCAR's top series, Richard Petty was still driving. He's an owner now, but when Marcos Ambrose won the Sprint Cup pole at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday for Richard Petty Motorsports, the Hall of Famer was on hand to put the accomplishment in perspective. Ambrose posted a speed of 203.241 m.p.h., the first time since 1987 the 200 m.p.h. mark was broken during Sprint Cup qualifying. "I can't hardly remember that far back," Petty said.

LONG POND, Pa. - Fast and furious. That's typically how NASCAR's stars leave after a weekend at Pocono Raceway. But this week is turning out to be the longest in track history, and for a change the drivers have had nothing but good things to say about the 2.5-mile speedway in advance of Sunday's Pocono 400. While a number of competitors applauded drastic improvements to pit road and the installation of the new generation of Safer barriers...

KING T. LEATHERBURY was born just as President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office for his first term, right in the midst of the Great Depression. King graduated from the University of Maryland and went to the race track, winning his first race as a trainer in 1959. Yesterday at Parx, King T. won Race No. 6,325, third all-time. He won the $350,000 Turf Monster with Ben's Cat, a horse that could have been claimed for $20,000 in his first start in May 2010. The horse had sustained a broken pelvis as a 2-year-old so the trainer, a master of the claiming game, took a chance.

ROSARIO MONTANEZ rode his first races in the hills above his native San Diego and across the border in Tijuana. He was 11. A decade later, he is the leading apprentice jockey in America, the favorite for the Eclipse Award, making a run at Kendrick Carmouche for leading rider at Parx Racing. The first time he went to an actual race track, it was Del Mar, the beautiful track on the Pacific Ocean just north of San Diego. He was 9. "After seeing match races and coming into a real race track, organized and everything, it was a lot different," Montanez said.

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.

DOVER, Del. - A second meeting with NASCAR officials at Dover International Speedway doesn't appear to have done much to defuse the animosity between Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch. Both Sprint Cup drivers were penalized $25,000 and placed on probation through June 15 for an altercation on pit road after last weekend's Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. NASCAR officials called both drivers to the hauler Thursday for another talk. Both drivers said they understood NASCAR will not tolerate similar incidents during Sunday's FedEx 400, or any other race for that matter.

THERE'S NO denying Kyle Busch is one of the most talented drivers in racing. The Bristol stomp he delivered to his racing rivals last week, sweeping all three events at Bristol Motor Speedway, is further proof of Busch's place among racing's elite. Busch's three-race romp in one week is unprecedented. This year, Busch has 16 wins in NASCAR's top three series: three in Sprint Cup, 10 Nationwide, three Camping World Trucks. His career total in the three series is an impressive 78: 19 Cup, 40 Nationwide, 19 trucks.

POCONO RACEWAY has taken some verbal hits recently from Sprint Cup drivers Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon. The three are concerned about safety issues along the backstretch of the 2.5-mile mountain speedway. On the last lap of last month's Cup race at Pocono, Kasey Kahne was blocked by teammate A.J. Allmendinger. Kahne's out-of-control Ford swerved across the track and almost flew over the 39-inch retaining wall. During a roundtable discussion that appeared in the July 5 issue of Sports Illustrated, referring to Kahne's accident Biffle said, "They're going to kill somebody there.