El Paso golf guru/musician Jack Welch was signed to perform his marvelous musical talent at Ruidoso Downs Racetrack and Casino for a couple of days recently so my wife, Helen, and I thought it might be a good time to visit there. Besides enjoying Jack’s singing, keyboard playing and saxophone magic I could sniff around and find out how the natives are feeling about the recent problems with fires and allegations of race fixing.
My wife was sort of scared that the place was in shambles and fires were still raging. Not so. In fact, we found it the usual pines-filled, relaxed, happy resort it’s always been – albeit growing. The section where the main fire occurred wasn’t all that big and had been contained.
AS FOR THE allegations of race fixing, racetrackers may be worried about horse racing getting a black eye but Ruidoso natives and local newspapers didn’t seem concerned at all about the charges. There was little news about it in local newspapers and store clerks, hotel hosts and the man on the street seemed totally oblivious to it all.
How hard is it to fix a million or more dollars race like the All-American Futurity? All but impossible these days.
In a 10-horse field you would have to bribe nine trainers and/or jockeys and on top of that ask them to give up their share of the purse, which could amount to more than a hundred thousand dollars.
OR YOU COULD try to bribe the gate crew to open nine gates later than the one where the horse you want to win comes out of, as is alleged in this case. Trouble is, it’s all mechanical and all gates open at the same time.
On top of that, races are on tape and the stewards review every step, every second, every instance of every race.
Some have been reviewing the video of the start of the alleged “fixed” race over and over again and have found no evidence that the gate in question opened even a millimeter of an inch ahead of the others.
So it looks like the fellow who was overheard saying he “fixed” the race that way was just blowing smoke.
TRIVIA QUESTION: There are two Division I college teams which have the nickname of Red Raiders. I’m sure you know Texas Tech is one. Who is the other? Answer at end.
A BONUS of our trip to Ruidoso was that Jack Welch invited me to play The Links golf course. What a treat it was to be hitting fairway shots off real grass.
Welch, despite having had several surgeries within the past year, is still a super golfer. He was just three over par.
Me? I, uh, had a lot fun.
SPEAKING OF golf, whoever said that sport is 90 percent mental and the other 10 percent is in your head was right on. Tiger Woods started last week’s U.S. Open by playing conservatively, just hitting “stingers” and keeping the ball in play.
Saturday, he was like a wild man, blasting drivers all over the place as if he was trying to overpower the long, long course. Wrong decision.
It was good to see a good looking young man like Webb Simpson win, though I admit that at my age I was rooting for the older guys like Jim Furyk and Ernie Els. I can relate more to them.
SPEAKING OF good-looking young men, world middleweight champ Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is in that category, too. I mean, that young man could be in movies.
I’ve heard nothing but raves about how the June 16 title fight held here looked on HBO.
Hey, anything that makes El Paso look good is okay.
ANSWER to trivia question: Colgate.