2001 Monmouth Park Final Standings

72 Days Of Racing 

05/26/01- 09/02/01

Above: Sea Of Tranquility (shadow roll) just gets  up to beat Thistyranthasclass in the $50,000 Jersey Breeders' Handicap.

© 2001 PHOTO BY ORR.com/MELISSA MOJICA

POINT GIVEN

2001 WINNER

$1.5 MILLION HASKELL INVITATIONAL HANDICAP

GRADE I 

OWNER: THE THOROUGHBRED CORPORATION

TRAINER: BOB BAFFERT

JOCKEY: GARY STEVENS

Point Given earns a hard fought victory in The Grade I Haskell Invitational Handicap on August 5, 2001.

© 2001 PHOTO BY ORR.com/MELISSA MOJICA

POINT GIVEN WINS THE GRADE I HASKELL INVITATIONAL HANDICAP

Oceanport, New Jersey

August 5, 2001

Haskell Review

In a race that finally lived up to its true billing, six three-year-old colts took to the track in Sunday’s Grade I Haskell Invitational.  At first glance, the toteboard may have persuaded the casual observer to think that this race would be over before the gates even opened.  The record crowd of 47,127 sent Point Given off as the 1/5 betting favorite as most expected to see the “Big Red Train” make his usual patented move at the three-eighths pole and draw off to destroy the field and take the purse back to California.  However, someone forgot to tell the connections of both Touch Tone and Burning Roma.  Both young horses skipped the Triple Crown and are just getting ready to step onto the national/international stage.   John Ward’s, Hero’s Tribute, also was expected to contend after a couple of really good efforts in New York.  After the start of the race the Ronny Werner trained, Touch Tone, took the early lead and never looked back posting fractions of 22:3, 46:4, 1:11:1 and 1:36:2 before hooking up with eventual winner Point Given in deep stretch.  The resilient front running effort of Touch Tone combined with the progressing stalking style of Burning Roma proved to be a double team that almost did Point Given in.  In the turn, after Point Given had made a closing move down the backside, Touch Tone seemed to pull away again by more than a length in the turn leaving the Belmont champ looking quite vulnerable, almost beaten, before the field entered the home stretch.  Jockey Gary Stevens finally rallied Point Given in mid-stretch and wore down the leader and resisted the late driving move made by Burning Roma to get up and win The Grade I Haskell Invitational by a half-length at the wire. 

What seemed to be a great victory for the colt, seeing what has happened to many coming back at first asking after the Triple Crown races, became somewhat bizarre in the winners circle.  Trainer Baffert commented after the race that he was not happy with the ride given by Hall of Fame Jockey, Gary Stevens, after seeing the move the colt had made down the backside in the race.  After further review of a video replay of the race the trainer somewhat retracted his comments saying that Stevens did a good job not letting the colt get out of contention but yet keeping him from running out of gas.  Once that story line faded stories surfaced of Baffert contacting the stewards to relay a message to his jockey three minutes before the race to keep the whip in his left hand in the stretch to keep the colt from lugging in during the stretch run.  However, in the translation the outrider seemed to get the message wrong and advised Stevens that Baffert wanted the whip in his left hand during the start.  Needless to say there was some tension in the winners circle after the event.  One can only imagine what would have transpired among the connections had the colt lost the race. What is all this mess?  They just won a $1.5 million race and it looks as if the horse was the only one with his mind on running.  Truly a great effort! Not a stellar time in victory, but rather a gritty performance by a true champion.  It is the mark of a true champion to perform and win even when he is not at his best.  Baffert had admitted earlier on last week that his colt had missed some training but was kept pointed for the Haskell.  Baffert admitted that the colt was closer to 80% than 100% for the Haskell.  Point Given should have a good solid foundation to build on for the Travers in a few weeks at Saratoga.  As for the drama, the connections should do a better job keeping this stuff out of the public eye.  It would make the whole process of campaigning possibly one of the best horses to ever grace the track much easier. Either way the fans were rewarded with a great race and even Monmouth Park’s management should take pride in showcasing perhaps one of the best races of 2001.  All in all a great day for New Jersey racing.

Monmouth Park

June 29, 2001

N.J. OTB bill sent to governor
By MATT HEGARTY, Daily Racing Form

The New Jersey Senate passed a bill late Thursday that would authorize off-track betting and account wagering in the state, sending the legislation to Gov. Donald DiFrancesco.

The Senate passed the bill 28-5, with seven members not voting, and at 11:32 p.m. it was approved by the state's Assembly. DiFrancesco has 45 days to sign the bill or issue a conditional veto, which would modify the existing bill and send it back to the legislature. 

The bill has drawn support from both horsemen and the state's racetracks, which are owned by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, a state agency. DiFrancesco is likely to sign the bill, although racing lobbyists have indicated that he has objected to language requiring the state's racetracks to run a certain amount of days. That objection could be cleared up by a side agreement between horsemen and the tracks to press for "clean-up" legislation during the fall lame-duck session that would soften the 140 live-date requirement, a horsemen's lobbyist said Friday morning.

The bill would allow 15 off-track betting sites in the state and legalize telephone wagering. New Jersey horse interests have attempted to pass a similar bill the past several years, but the effort has been compromised by infighting between tracks and horsemen.

Racing officials said Friday that an account-wagering system could probably be operational by February of 2002, while OTB sites could be up and running in early 2003.