Monday, Jan. 3, 2005 | 9:35 a.m.
Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Sunday.
The last champagne bottle has been popped, the fireworks have been fired, the recovery from hangovers now done with the 300,000 revelers returning home from a place that promises whatever they did here stays here -- 2005 is officially here.
With the first Derby of the year already in the record books, we reflect one final time on the racing year of 2004.
It was certainly a tale of two horses and two separate seasons.
Smarty Jones popped onto the scene Jan. 3 with a victory at Aqueduct, rolled through Oaklawn Park to sweep its sophomore series that culminated with a victory in the Arkansas Derby on the way to a Kentucky Derby win and the Oaklawn Park $5 million Centennial Bonus. Smarty mania peaked when he added the middle jewel of the Triple Crown in the Preakness Stakes in pursuit of greatness at Belmont Park. Birdstone upset Smarty Jones in the June 5 Belmont Stakes and, after a $39 million stallion syndication deal, Smarty's racing party was over. The most popular horse on the planet retired with eight wins in nine lifetime starts, banking $7,613,155.
Just a month after the Belmont Stakes, Ghostzapper burst onto the scene with a scintillating victory in the Tom Fool Handicap on July 4. He followed that with victories in the Iselin at Monmouth Park and a eye-popping performance Sept. 11 in the Woodward at Belmont Park. While Smarty Jones did not meet Ghostzapper on the track in the Breeders' Cup Classic, the most accomplished field in Breeders' Cup history did. Ghostzapper may have wrapped up his gold Eclipse Award trophy with a vintage Classic victory.
Now it will be up to Eclipse Award voters to decide which horse will be honored as the best of 2004. Justice would make this race a dead heat.
Of the other equine accomplishments last year, 2003 Breeders' Cup Classic winner Pleasantly Perfect came off a five-month layoff and won the $6 million Dubai World Cup on March 27. In addition to Ghostzapper in the Classic, other Breeders' Cup winners at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30 were Ashado in the Distaff, Sweet Catomine in the Juvenile Fillies, Wilko in the Juvenile, Singletary in the Mile, Speightstown in the Sprint, Ouija Board in the Filly & Mare Turf and Better Talk Now in the Turf. Azeri, a two-time divisional champion (2002 and 2003) and 2002 Horse of the Year, was retired -- for the second time -- on Dec. 24.
On the human side, there were retirements, accomplishments and setbacks in 2004.
On Jan. 22, jockey Patrick Valenzuela started his latest chapter of defiances when he failed to show up for a mandatory drug test at Santa Anita. By August, after months of maneuvers that would make a soap opera script look tame, P. Val was suspended for the remainder of the year. Stay tuned. He is attempting to win reinstatement.
Among milestones, Edgar Prado became the 19th jockey to reach the 5,000-win plateau on March 13 at Gulfstream Park and John Velazquez broke his own record at Saratoga with 62 victories during that summer racing season. Jerry Hollendorfer became just the sixth Thoroughbred trainer to win 4,000 career races when he hit that mark on April 15; Dale Baird -- the all-time winningest trainer -- celebrated his 9,000th career victory Nov. 5; and on Nov. 20 trainer Steve Asmussen broke the single-year record of 496 victories set by Jack Van Berg 28 years ago. Asmussen finished the year with 554 victories.
Retiring in 2004 were Louisiana riding legend Ronald Ardoin with 5,226 victories on Feb. 21, and Patti Cooksey -- the second-winningest female rider -- with 2,137 victories on June 24. Both ended their riding careers at age 46.
On the business side, in early July Pennsylvania legalized up to 61,000 slot machines for racetracks that may generate as much as $3 billion yearly and boost purses at tracks in the Quaker State. Churchill Downs Inc. completed the purchase of historic Fair Grounds Race Course for $47 million on Aug. 31, and opened that New Orleans track, as scheduled, on Thanksgiving. Fourteen jockeys were banned from Churchill Downs on Nov. 8 for the balance of their fall meeting for boycotting the track in protest of inadequate accident insurance. In a show of solidarity, the controversial president of the Jockey's Guild, Wayne Gertmenian, was re-elected though 2009. The Guild vowed to continue demanding adequate insurance coverage for jockeys that may lead to more boycotts in 2005.
Finally, those in racing who left us in 2004: jockeys Mike Rowland (41) and Dean Kutz (48); trainers John Russell (67), Victor "Lefty" Nickerson (75), Hall Of Famer Phil Johnson (78) and Doug Peterson (53), who trained the great Seattle Slew; owners W.T. Young (85) of Overbrook Farm and international horseman Robert Sangster (67); and horses including Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Tabasco Cat, champion mare Sky Beauty, multiple Grade I winner Free House, champion 2-year-old Deputy Minister, Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Epitome and Storm Bird, sire of the dominant stallion Storm Cat.
What a year.
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