The first is an interesting editorial by Kevin Modesti of the LA Daily News about the state of horse racing’s popularity . . .

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_8080294

Commentary: In horse racing, less is more

By Kevin Modesti, Los Angeles Newspaper Group Sports Editor

Article Last Updated: 01/25/2008 06:29:49 PM PST

At the newspaper office this week, I’ve heard people talking more than usual about horse racing. By more than usual, I mean more than when horse racing is actually, you know, happening. Would it be ridiculous to suggest the weather gods are giving horse racing exactly what it needs by creating less of it, the rain forcing the fifth cancellation of the Santa Anita season Friday and putting the rich Sunshine Millions races in jeopardy today?

For more than a generation Southern California thoroughbred racing has been year-round. Racing plods through the calendar, eight or nine dashes a day, five or six days a week, 52 weeks a year, getting little attention outside the world of gamblers.

It’s that blur of tiny numbers on the way to the hockey scores in the back of the sports section. Horses run, jockeys ride. Ho-hum.

There’s nothing resembling other sports’ opening days to recharge the adrenal batteries; typically there’s only one day of rest between one track closing and the next opening. There’s nothing like other games’ climactic championship days; the day after the Breeders’ Cup, racetracks load up the betting machines and get on with business. Numbing.

But occasionally the routine is interrupted. A horse can’t run anymore (Barbaro). A jockey is told he can’t ride (Patrick Valenzuela). An “all-weather” track falls apart under a little rainwater (Santa Anita). And suddenly the sport is in headlines and people are talkin’ racing.

People inside the game have known for a long time that less could be more, that horses and humans would be better off if they took more days and weeks off, that the general public would care more if it was allowed to miss racing every now and then and anticipate its return.

Unfortunately the glutted calendar is to racing what pork-barrel politics is to Congress. Nobody’s willing to give up the short-term gain for the long-term good.

Racing’s biggest problem is all the competitors - other forms of gambling, other sports franchises - that have sprung up since its fattest decades. Its biggest fixable problem is that there’s just too much of it.

Now wise Mother Nature steps in, and the Sunshine Millions is getting more attention than this gimmicky promotion has ever received. And you can wager that when Santa Anita does reopen, you’ll see more fans betting more money on more horses than before the forced break.

Maybe a lesson will be learned the hard way. For the racetrack, the rain is a new crisis, the oversaturation is not.

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This one’s by Jennie Rees of the Louisville-Courier Journal. It’s about Steve Asmussen’s top 3 year old Pyro . . .

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080127/SPORTS08/801270535/1002/SPORTS

Asmussen’s Pyro might be hot pick

By Jennie Rees
jrees@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

He has been beaten in his past three races by champion War Pass. But Pyro, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up, might be the horse to beat for the Kentucky Derby.

While War Pass is training in Florida and Pyro is in New Orleans, Pyro jockey Shaun Bridgmohan looks forward to a rematch.

I’m expecting a lot of good things to come from (Pyro),” he said. “War Pass is a champion (but) I think when all is said and done, Pyro will be in front of him as a 3-year-old.”

Though he has only a maiden victory, Pyro was voted an Eclipse Award finalist off his rallying second-place performances in the Juvenile and Grade I Champagne. He also was third in a stakes-quality allowance race at Saratoga won by War Pass.

“The Champagne showed in the spotlight that he’s a horse with a future,” Bridgmohan said. “I was very, very impressed about the way he ran in the Breeders’ Cup. He didn’t seem to be handling the racetrack, and his class came out. He was sliding around a bit, but he still put in a run enough to finish second to that horse.”

Pyro is the opposite of the speedy War Pass in some respects, with his pedigree and stretch-running style more conducive to the Derby’s 11/4 miles.

“I think he was the second-best 2-year-old last year, and he needs to continue to physically develop to be headed in that direction,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. ” … It’s quite obvious what a great prospect he is for the Derby. He’s already performed at a very high level. He appears to want more distance, and he’s a great physical specimen. So how excited can you be about a horse? That’s how excited we are about him as far as potential.”

A year ago, Asmussen lost his leading Derby prospect with a career-ending injury to unbeaten Tiz Wonderful. Several weeks later, he helped arrange the purchase of a colt who had won his racing debut Feb. 3 by 123/4 lengths. That was eventual Horse of the Year Curlin, who finished third in the Derby before giving Asmussen his first Triple Crown victory in the Preakness.

Asmussen calls Pyro the best Derby prospect he’s had at this stage of the season. The son of Pulpit, out of a mare by Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Wild Again, has been watched closely since he did something not expected to be his forte: winning his six-furlong debut at Churchill Downs before running into War Pass.

“He’s 1 for 1 over at Churchill. There are a lot of positives,” Asmussen said. “As far as comparing, you can’t compare one year to the last. Can you imagine him beating Street Sense the first Saturday in May? So you realize what a tall order it is. But guess what? It’s a completely different year.”

Pyro could make his first 2008 start in the 11/16-mile Risen Star at the Fair Grounds, where he should relish the long stretch. He had a superb work recently in company with Curlin, powering five furlongs in 1:00 3/5 seconds.

Asmussen has another legitimate contender in Z Fortune, who is 3 for 3 after taking the Fair Grounds’ Lecomte. He’s a New York-bred like 2003 Derby winner Funny Cide. Z Fortune also is likely headed for the Risen Star.

“I was very impressed with his race in the Lecomte,” Asmussen said. “He handled it really well, his first time he wasn’t on the lead. He accelerated when he needed to.”

Asked if things have changed now that he has won a Triple Crown race and had a champion, Asmussen quipped: “You don’t have to repeat yourself nearly as much when someone asks you what you think.”

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And here’s a pretty substantial list of Derby contenders - also from the Courier-Journal . . .

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080127/SPORTS08/80127004