The Born to Run. Ryan Reed
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Название: The Born to Run
Автор: Ryan Reed
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Спорт, фитнес
isbn: 9781620080528
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Leadouts walk CTW About Sissy (number 5), Kiowa Salvo Cade (number 3), CJ Big Brother (number 2), and Flying Hunter (number 6) during a post parade. The platform in the foreground is used as a stage to photograph the winners of championship stake races, such as the American Derby, Lincoln Inaugural, and All-Age Sprint Stake.
Running a step and a breath behind Radiant Mantle* (number 8), Flying Hunter (number 6) holds behind the leader just feet from the first turn. At the far turn, the yellow-jacketed pup muscled his way into the lead, winning the grade-C race by two lengths. (The asterisk behind a Greyhound’s name means that the dog was whelped overseas.)
Two-year-old Pa’s Brethren (number 5) holds off Just Believe (number 7) to take another grade-AA win for the Regall Sports kennel. By the end of 2004, Pa’s Brethren had raced in a half-dozen stake races at Lincoln Park and the Hollywood Greyhound Track in Hollywood, Florida.
A field of grade-M racers, some of whom only have one or two starts to their credit, break from the starting box and race down the chute. Atisa (number 1) took the win by powering herself past the leaders on the backstretch. A few months later, Atisa was racing in grade J at the Gulf Greyhound Park in La Marque, Texas.
Leadouts move into position to leash up their assigned Greyhounds as the canine athletes enter the escape turn after a grade-A race. The curtain, hanging by chains at the right and out of view, serves as an important safety measure in case a Greyhound falls while negotiating the first turn. Quickly pulled across the racetrack in such a situation, the curtain will prevent a disoriented dog from running in the opposite direction and head-on into speeding traffic.
Blink An Miss, a rare blue-colored Greyhound, is walked off the racetrack and into the cool-off area for a quick spray of water, a drink, and the inevitable urine test to check the dog’s system for illegal stimulants after winning a grade-A race. After a seventeen-month stay at Lincoln Park, Blink An Miss will return to his home racetrack, the Wichita Greyhound Park in Wichita, Kansas.
Blasting through the first turn, Clair Has Flair (number 7), Spinning Spell* (number 3), and French Follie (number 8) battle for the lead position. A second later, French Follie was bumped, taking her out of contention for the lead. Spinning Spell* went on to take the grade-A win with Storm Mist (number 5), barely visible, holding on for second place. The Irish import Spinning Spell* had previously raced at Dublin’s Shelbourne Park as well as at the Limerick Greyhound Track.
The post-race routine might first appear to be a strange mess of people and dogs, but it is a remarkably fast and smooth operation. As leadouts remove the stretchvest-type racing jackets from each Greyhound, trainers are standing by, ready to take their respective racers for a cool-down with chilled water.
The Twin River Adoption Program’s kennel houses retired racers just the same as any given racing kennel—a practice commonly seen at adoption kennels throughout the country. To help maintain a sense of security for the retired racers while in their new surroundings, feeding and turnout times are the same as those in the racing kennels. Likewise, males and females are turned out in separate pens to prevent clandestine romances from taking place. Because of the strong working relationship between the RIGOA and the adoption organization, Lincoln Park (Twin River) enjoyed a 100 percent adoption rate.
Rhode Island Greyhound Owners Association vice president Dan Ryan and Lincoln Greyhound Adoption Program director June Bazar, along with June’s nine-year-old retired racer China (China Bay–LI), take in the sunshine at Lincoln’s Saylesville Park as children enjoy playground equipment purchased using a $26,000 grant from the RIGOA.
The biggest recipient of the RIGOA’s benefaction was the Lincoln (Twin River) Greyhound Adoption Program, founded in late 1994. June Bazar, a Greyhound Pets of America volunteer who had started in Greyhound adoption some fifteen years prior, was asked to serve as director for the upstart organization. The RIGOA footed the bill for the construction of a new adoption kennel next to the kennel compound at Lincoln Park. Once the kennel building was finished, the RIGOA purchased stylish black leather furniture for the lobby.
Tailwind Force (number 6) challenges Roar Phantom (number 1, in red) for the lead position in a stunning display of athletic fortitude as the field of Greyhounds races down the front stretch during a grade-B performance. Tailwind Force powered her way to take the win, with Roar Phantom holding on for second place.
CHAPTER 2
By any measure, Greyhound racing in the state of Florida is astonishing, spectacular, audacious… you get the picture. With close to a third of the nation’s Greyhound racetracks located in the Sunshine State—including the world’s oldest, Derby Lane—Florida is a bright spot for racing fans across the country. Its racing history stretches back to 1921. With so many racetracks in the state, it is not surprising that Florida also has numerous adoption organizations for retired Greyhound racers.
Towering high over Gandy Boulevard and 4th Street in St. Petersburg, a long-legged sign points the way to the oldest Greyhound racetrack in the world.
In 1921, just two years after Owen Patrick Smith opened the first Greyhound racetrack, located in Emeryville, California, the sport found its way to Florida with the opening of the Miami Kennel Club in Hialeah. This was one of the first racetracks to regularly run eight Greyhounds in a single race. The kennel club was also the first to host evening races under a row of floodlights. Although somewhat of an experiment at first, evening racing at the Hialeah racetrack proved to be a hit with local patrons, and other racetracks throughout the country soon adopted the practice. They did not, however, adopt Hialeah’s grass racetrack surface, continuing to use sand and dirt instead.
Later, in 1925, the St. Petersburg Kennel Club and the nearby Tampa-based Six Mile Creek Kennel Club opened their respective racetracks. A group of local businessmen had built the St. Petersburg Kennel Club on timberland purchased from T. L. Weaver, an entrepreneur of the lumber trade. It was the first racetrack built by private interests other than those of O. P. Smith or his partner George Heintz. The St. Petersburg Kennel Club celebrated its grand inaugural race on January 3, 1925.
Shortly after the racetrack’s grand opening, its owners ran into financial hardship and were no longer able to make payments on the initial land purchase. Possession of the property, along with its newly built СКАЧАТЬ