D2
S
generation, Eskendereya, is injured and only a few others have displayed enough talent to win the Kentucky Derby even in a sub-par year. Nevertheless, Churchill
THE SIDELINE
E
xceptional 3-year-olds are in short supply this spring. The top colt of the
Downs’s starting gate will be filled to capacity on Saturday. The rules of the Derby limit the field to 20 entrants, and for the sixth straight year the race has attracted the maximum number. This is a new phenomenon. From 1985 to 2004, the Derby didn’t have a single 20-horse field. The numbers reflect the sustained popularity of the event, but there is also a disturbing development that has helped create these 20-horse fields. Most trainers have stopped employing sound judgment and horsemanship to determine whether a horse belongs in the Derby.
Quick Fix
6From the blogs at washingtonpost.com/sports
TERRAPINS INSIDER
Driesell leaves Maryland for head job at the Citadel
Chuck Driesell, who just
completed his fourth season as a men’s basketball assistant, will become the head coach at the Citadel. The school is expected to announce the hire on Tuesday. It will be Driesell’s first Division I head coaching job. He oversaw the men’s program at Division III Marymount from 1997 to 2003. “I think for any assistant it’s
a great thing to get a Division I coaching job,” Maryland Coach Gary Williams said. “It keeps getting more difficult to do that, so I think it’s a good opportunity for him.” Driesell, a Maryland grad and the son of former Terps coach Lefty Driesell, takes over a Citadel team that finished the 2009-10 campaign 16-16 overall. The Bulldogs roster includes nine rising seniors.
— Steve Yanda
CHAT REWIND
‘Let me tell you what has seven glorious games written all over it: Suns-Spurs.’
Michael Wilbon, in his online chat Monday, talking NBA playoffs. Find a full transcript at
washingtonpost.com/sports.
Hot Topic D.C. Sports Bog
Blog excerpt from washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog
REDSKINS INSIDER
Williams bringing pride and pancakes to Ashburn
Offended by what he feels is unfair criticism of tackle Trent Williams’s work ethic, wide receiver Malcolm Kelly defended his longtime friend and teammate in high school, college and, soon, the pros. “I’ve never heard of anybody
going up to the draft, especially a high draft pick, where they’re not saying something’s wrong with him,” Kelly said in a phone interview Sunday. “It does kind of bother me, but I know Trent. He’s not going to say too much about it. But then when people see him out there pancaking people, then they’ll realize.”
Williams will work to become great, Kelly said. “Trent is a prideful person,”
Kelly said. “He’s going to do whatever he can to shut people up.”
— Jason Reid
Cooley has a senior moment
by Dan Steinberg
Weight-room music in Redskins Park is usually chosen based on seniority. The other day, Chris Cooley was complaining about having to listen to the same hip-hop track for the millionth day in a row. “Someone told me to just go change it,”
Cooley said. “And I was like wow, wait, I really can just go change it.” Only seven players — including Cooley —
have had uninterrupted careers with the Redskins since the team’s last playoff win in January 2006. Heck, more than half the starters from the last Joe Gibbs playoff team are already gone. So Cooley, a 27-year-old entering his seventh NFL season, is one of the longest-tenured players in the Redskins’ weight room and in the greater D.C. pro sports community. “Which is unbelievable, because I feel like
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I got here yesterday,” Cooley said on Monday, during an appearance at Langston Golf Course for The First Tee and FedExCup’s sustainability campaign. “It’s a completely different team. And that happens when you change staffs like we have.” Like everyone else, I needed to ask Cooley for his reaction to the Jason Campbell trade. He and Campbell were close; they vacationed together in Orlando, and Cooley consistently stuck up for the quarterback in interviews. Cooley said the same thing everyone else has said — that he’s happy for Campbell and will be rooting for him. “It’s one of those guys that you actually care about, and I think fans actually care about, so they’ll watch Jason Campbell play in Oakland,” Cooley said. “People just like him. I mean, he’s likable. Especially after all the hits he took, that guy could have quit after Week 10 and just said this is retarded, I’m not doing this any more. He just kept getting back up and playing for us.” Still, there’s a difference between rooting for someone and going on vacation together, and the days of joint roller-coaster photos are probably over. Cooley said they’ll probably text each other after good games, and not much more than that. Indeed, a locker-room wall’s worth of
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veterans has departed this year, and Cooley said he’s spoken just with a handful: Todd Yoder, Antwaan Randle El and Campbell. That’s the way of the world in that line of work, and Cooley said even this year’s wholesale roster shift doesn’t stand out. “It’s always a massive change,” Cooley
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said. “From the time that you arrive in March through the draft, there’s 40 new faces every year. Obviously you get back to [a core], but it seems like there’s such a big
The cardinal rules for training thoroughbreds have changed little over the decades: Manage horses with patience. Don’t ask them to do anything for which they’re not fully prepared. Don’t run them where they are overmatched. Even when the Kentucky Derby was concerned, trainers used to be cautious. Charlie Whittingham operated the strongest stable in the West, but he didn’t run a single horse in the Derby for 26 years before he won with Ferdinand in 1986. He knew that most 3-year-olds are not ready to face such a demanding test. “You’ve got to
KLMNO
WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS
D.C. Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg will be taking questions online Tuesday at 11:30 a.m.
TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2010
WASHINGTON POST LIVE WITH IVAN CARTER
5 p.m. on Comcast SportsNet
Cody Grimm, Brian Mitchell, Alan May, Al Koken and Ryan O’Halloran join The Post’s Mike Wise.
When trainers are more focused on their reputations, Derby glory comes at a cost
ANDREW BEYER
let the horse tell you when he’s ready,” Whittingham said. “Listen to anyone else and you’re in trouble.” It’s hard to imagine that horses such as Dean’s Kitten, Paddy O’Prado, Homeboykris and Stately Victor whispered, “I’m ready for the Derby!” to their respective trainers this spring. Dean’s Kitten has raced once on dirt, losing by 34 lengths. Paddy O’Prado is a turf runner who has won a single race in his career. Homeboykris hasn’t raced since February and hasn’t won since October. Stately Victor beat a poor field in slow time over a synthetic track in Keeneland’s Blue Grass Stakes, and he’s 0 for 3 lifetime on dirt. Knowledgeable, successful trainers manage all of these horses. Why are they making these questionable choices? There was a time when owners and trainers who wanted to make their mark in the sport
had many alternatives. They might get as much prestige and satisfaction from winning the Jockey Club Gold Cup or the Santa Anita Handicap as they would from a Triple Crown event. But as the sport’s overall popularity has declined, the Triple Crown races are the only ones that continue to appeal to a broad segment of the public. Every rich owner who gets into the game now has the same aim: to win the Kentucky Derby. Trainers know, too, that the way to make their reputation and attract more clients is to win the 3-year-old classics. Another factor has undoubtedly affected the thinking of owners and trainers this year: the memory of Mine That Bird. The gelding’s Derby victory in 2009 was one of the most inexplicable upsets in the history of American horse racing. There may not be a result like it at Churchill Downs for
another century, but Mine That Bird gives hope to every owner and trainer with an underachieving 3-year-old. If it were not for the 20-horse rule, this year’s Derby might have had as many as 30 entrants. Churchill Downs imposed the
limit after the chaotic 23-horse Derby in 1974. Its rules give preference to the 20 horses with the highest earnings in graded stakes races — the major events that a committee has anointed as Grade I, Grade II or Grade III. The system isn’t perfect, but it’s good enough. However, it has affected the mind-set of owners and trainers in recent years. Instead of trying to decide whether their colt ought to run in the Derby, they act as if top-20 earnings qualify him for the race and prove his legitimacy. The earnings rule has perversely created a justification for running horses who don’t belong in the field.
Yet the reasons for caution about running in the Derby are the same as they were in Charlie Whittingham’s era. No race in America is so stressful. Three-year-olds are being asked to run farther than they have ever run, against the largest field they will ever see, under conditions that invariably produce bumping, jostling — or worse. The race always takes a toll on its contestants. Last year, after one entrant
was scratched, a total of 19 horses started in the Derby. Of them, 16 did not win a race for the remainder of the year. Six didn’t race more than once. Promising colts regressed and couldn’t regain their form after their Derby venture. It is understandable that almost any owner and trainer wants to experience the excitement of the Kentucky Derby, but it is an experience that often comes at a high price.
JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
Chris Cooley is one of seven Redskins to have an uninterrupted run with the team since January 2006. “Which is unbelievable, because I feel like I got here yesterday,” he said.
turnover every year. It’s a weird deal. You lose a lot of people you’re close to. You think, shoot, we’re good friends, and I probably won’t even really talk to you again.” Won’t even talk again? That sounds sort of ominous.
“I mean, occasionally, once a month, for a couple guys that I actually really like,” he said. “I mean, even Todd Yoder and I were super close. I might talk to him every couple
weeks now. I probably won’t see him almost ever. . . . “Everyone just kind of moves on with
whatever other deal they do. No one’s really from here, so they don’t come back here. It’s different. You get used to it.” And you adapt along the way. Campbell’s
charity golf tournament was long scheduled for Monday, but because of all the hubbub, he was unable to make it. Cooley filled in.
steinbergd@washpost.com
DIGEST
SOCCER
Injury will cost Beckham entire MLS season
England midfielder David Beckham says he won’t be able to play again until November, meaning he’ll miss the entire Ma- jor League Soccer season for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Beckham underwent surgery
in March after rupturing his Achilles’ tendon while on loan at AC Milan. He had previously said he expected to be back by Sep- tember.
But Beckham said that he
won’t be running for another three months, and he’ll probably be playing again in November. . . . Houston Dyanamo midfielder
Geoff Cameron will need sur- gery to repair a torn posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will miss the rest of the MLS season. He was injured in Saturday’s 2-0 loss to Chicago. . . . U.S. national team striker Charlie Davies has resumed full
training for the first time since nearly dying in car accident last October. The car accident killed another passenger and the 23-year-old Davies broke two bones in his right leg. He also suffered a bro- ken and dislocated left elbow, a broken nose, forehead and eye socket, a ruptured bladder and had bleeding on the brain.
PRO BASKETBALL
Dallas Mavericks center Erick Dampier has been fined $35,000 for publicly criticizing game offi- cials during comments following a loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night. NBA Commis- sioner David Stern said last week the league will consider suspend- ing players from playoff games for griping about the officials. . . . Orlando teammates have coined a new nickname for Magic
center Dwight Howard: Foul on You. Howard says his teammates
were “killing me all day” with the new name at a shoot-around be- fore Monday’s playoff game against Charlotte. The teasing stems from Howard being called for 16 fouls in the first three games against the Bobcats. . . . A car collided with the Atlanta
Hawks’ bus as the team was leav- ing a shoot-around session at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee ear- ly Monday afternoon ahead of the team’s playoff game Monday night. A team spokesman said no one was injured. . . . Former Bucks power forward
Kevin Restani died in San Fran- cisco after returning from Mil- waukee where he had attended Game 3 between the Bucks and Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night. He was 58. The Bucks didn’t say how Res- tani died on Sunday night. While in Milwaukee, he had participat-
ed in the North American Associ- ation of Club Athletic Directors basketball tournament. The 6-foot-9 Restani played in
Milwaukee from 1974 to ’79. He averaged six points and 4.6 re- bounds per game with the Bucks and played eight total seasons in the NBA, making stops in Kansas City, San Antonio and Cleveland.
PRO FOOTBALL
The New England Patriots re- leased former Pro Bowl lineback- er Adalius Thomas, who joined the team as a high-profile free agent in 2007, but fell into dis- favor with Coach Bill Belichick last season. Thomas, 32, signed a five-year, $35 million deal with the Patriots after seven seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. . . . The Jacksonville Jaguars re- leased two-time Pro Bowl defen- sive tackle John Henderson. The team also released defensive
tackle Montavious Stanley and linebackers Brian Iwuh and Tank
Daniels, and withdrew its qual- ifying offer to linebacker Clint In-
gram.
A first-round pick in 2002, the
6-foot-7, 335-pound Henderson averaged 84 tackles and 41
⁄2 ⁄2
tackles and 21
during his first four seasons. He averaged 561
sacks
⁄2
sacks the last four years. . . .
LeGarrette Blount, the Oregon
running back suspended for punching a player last season, agreed to terms with the Tennes- see Titans as an undrafted free agent. Tennessee also agreed to terms with Southern California
running back Stafon Johnson,
whose larynx was crushed in a weightlifting accident last Sep- tember. Johnson returned to play in the Senior Bowl in January.
MISC.
New Jersey Devils Coach Jacques Lemaire has retired fol- lowing his team’s first-round playoff elimination for the third straight year. Lemaire made the
announcement four days after the Devils were ousted by the Philadelphia Flyers in five games. Lemaire, 64, says he doesn’t
have the energy to coach any- more. He will stay with the Devils in a role yet to be determined. Le- maire led the team to the Stanley Cup in 1995. . . . Longtime Creighton Coach Da- na Altman has signed a seven- year deal worth $1.8 million an- nually to become Oregon’s new head basketball coach. Altman, 51, spent 16 seasons at Creighton, finishing with a 327-176 record. Altman replaces Ernie Kent, who was fired after 13 seasons. . . . Former heavyweight boxing champion John Ruiz, 38, is retir- ing after an 18-year career. He was the WBA champ two times and finished with a record of 44- 9-1, including 30 knockouts. Ruiz was knocked down four times in a loss to David Haye this month.
— From news services
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