Richard Eng

The 2008 Eclipse Award finalists were released Thursday, and while three horses or people were named in each category, most categories appear to be slam dunks.

Despite a tumultuous final week of 2008, Garrett Gomez showed above all that he is a good sport.

Horseplayers from coast to coast will be raring to go today after racing was completely dark the past two days because of the holiday.

Richard Shapiro’s resignation this week as chairman of the California Horse Racing Board caught everyone by surprise. He had just been appointed to a second four-year term by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I last attended the University of Arizona Symposium on Racing and Gaming in Tucson in 1993. I would like to tell you that 15 years later the subject matter, changes and reforms in the racing industry were like night and day. But, after recently returning from Tucson, I must say, no, that’s not the case.

Boyd Gaming, like most casino companies, is not having a good year. But you wouldn’t know it by its $1.5 million sponsorship of the Delta Jackpot card at Delta Downs in Vinton, La., tonight.

It wasn’t long ago in horse racing that the surname Asmussen referred to Cash, a champion jockey in America and Europe. His younger brother, Steve, tried riding but quickly grew too big. So in 1986, Steve Asmussen turned to training horses.

The readers’ votes are counted for our Horse of the Year pick. And the winner by a nose is Zenyatta. The champion filly won by a 49-47 percent margin over Curlin, while Big Brown and Zarkava each earned 2 percent.

Any handicapper who says jockeys don’t make a difference hasn’t been watching Rafael Bejarano ride on a day-to-day basis. His dominance of the Southern California jockey colony in his first year out west is truly remarkable.

Horse racing could learn a lot from President-elect Barack Obama. And it matters not if Obama signs one piece of legislation to help the industry.