Here and There (Aug. 30, 2000)

Mike Pegram’s two-time champion Silverbulletday and Robert and Beverly Lewis, Kentucky Derby 125 winner Charismatic , last year's champion 3-year-old, have been chosen as the Kentucky-based Horses of the Year for 1999 by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Media. The awards recognize horses whose connections have made a commitment to support racing at all Kentucky tracks...New York-bred Ave’s Flag , seven length winner of Aqueduct’s $120,300 Gallant Fox Handicap (gr. III) in 1996 plus four NYRA restricted stakes as a 2-and-3-year-old, has been retired from racing and is starting a new career as a riding horse at Jo Ann Finley’s Fawn Ridge Farm near East Nassau. The 8-year-old gelding went out a winner, making his last start on Aug. 20 at Saratoga as the oldest in a field of 11 and determinedly digging in to prevail by a neck, increasing his earnings to $501,926. Bred by Mr. and Mrs. David McNulty in partnership with Howard Kaskel’s Sugar Maple Farm in Poughquag, Ave’s Flag raced for McNulty in partnership with Josef Omland...Louisiana Racing Commission member Jon R. McKinnie has been named executive director of the Interstate Licensing Compact Committee, effective Friday. Based in Lexington, Ky., the NRC will seek uniform requirements for, and issue, the first national license for pari-mutuel racing. The developer of the McKinnie computer system used by most tracks, McKinnie has been responsible for overseeing development of the database at the Association of Racing Commissioner International and is developing NRC's database and license application process. McKinnie and his wife, Kay, operate a broodamre farm and racing stable…Kentucky Downs has added two steeplechase races to its seven-day, all-turf meet in September. The steeplechase races--the $50,000 Grabel and the $25,000 For the Sport of Kings--will be the first and second races on the Sept. 23 live six-race card at Kentucky Downs. The two steeplechase events will be run clockwise (opposite direction of American flat racing). The Franklin, Ky. track’s “Kentucky Cup Turf Festival” card that day will also include the $100,000 Kentucky Cup Dash, $100,000 Kentucky Cup Ladies Dash, $200,000 Kentucky Cup Mile, and the $300,000 Kentucky Cup Turf . . . An Arkansas judge has dismissed a suit filed against the Oaklawn Jockey Club and Southland Greyhound Park over the Instant Racing System developed by RaceTech. Drew County Chancery Court Judge Robert Vittitow ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to pursue the case with the Arkansas State Racing Commission, which has “sole jurisdiction over the business and the sport of horse racing in this state.” Developed over a three-year period, the Instant Racing System allows electronic pari-mutuel wagering on previously-run races . . . Effective Friday, racing from Mountaineer Park will be added to the signals shown by The Racing Network. The West Virginia track races Friday-Tuesday, with first post time of 7:00 p.m. (ET). . . Jockey Norberto Arroyo, Jr., dropped his appeal of a "careless riding" charge Tuesday. Arroyo will serve the 20-day suspension he received after he rode Seeking the Sky, the first finisher in the seventh race at Aqueduct on Jan. 22. When Seeking the Sky wove through horses in the turn, Anthenian Thunder, racing just off the pace, stumbled, clipped heels and lost his rider, Shaun Bridgmohan, in the upper stretch. Following a claim of foul by Bridgmohan against the winner, Seeking the Sky was disqualified and placed last in the seven-horse field of older allowance runners