Cassidy Sweeps at Del Mar: Shades of the Bald Eagle
Trainer James Cassidy takes Del Mar’s Opening Weekend Feature Races
by James Connelly
There once was a man named Charlie. He was most feared on days where the big money mattered. He was good at it and he did it for almost 50 years. Charlie Whittingham was considered as one of the best thoroughbred trainers during his time. He became the all time leading trainer at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park. He saddled over 250 stakes winners including 2 Kentucky Derby winners. (Ferdinand and Sunday Silence). Throughout his long tenure, he kept his competitive edge right to the end. Whenever there was a Stakes or Handicap especially on Turf at Hollywood Park, Santa Anita or Del Mar, you could be sure that Charlie’s barn, full of turf running professionals had a hoof in those races and it was a blast to watch! He was known as “The Bald Eagle”. He was a bald headed, tall, thin and lurking man with the Woody Hayes type of hat. His public persona seemed a man of poise and ease. During those years, I was in awe of him at what he did with his presence in the Southern California Horse Racing scene in the 80′s and 90′s. His turf running monsters would always show up and run their hearts out for him and their owners. He always had them ready to win! A few that come to mind: Greinton; Rivlia; Dahar; Flawlessly. There’s others but the point is Charlie was the man in his day. His turf battles with the other notable turf trainers such as Bobby Frankel and Neil Drysdale were spectacular enough that even bettors with losing tickets went home knowing they saw brilliance on turf. Charlie Whittingham is no longer with us. His passing was felt by many in 1999, and he is recognized at all tracks with his history, and has a Grade I Turf Race named in his Honor at Hollywood Park.
Enter Southern California Trainer James Cassidy. 
His career not as prolonged as Charlie Whittingham’s, nonetheless he brought back a spirit of Charlie with his two Graded Turf winners this weekend at Del Mar. On Saturday he saddled the 7-5 favorite The Usual QT with his most confident jockey aboard, Victor Espinoza in the Grade I Eddie Read , run at 1-1/8 miles on turf. Espinoza sat him 3rd in a field of 7 until he hit the top of the stretch 3 wide and gained the advantage in mid stretch to win by 2 lengths and take the $180,000 prize for first place. He bested a fine field of other Grade I winners. Nice! On Sunday James had another beauty waiting for her turn, Evening Jewel. He had the 3 yr old filly ready for a one mile Turf run in the Grade II San Clemente Handicap. The favored filly at 8-5 with Espinoza aboard along with a field of nine other horses, ran 4th around the track until it mattered and found her best stride in mid stretch and won by a length for Cassidy’s weekend turf sweep and gained a $150,000 for first place. Its been noted that the owners of Evening Jewel, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Braly are going through a difficult time as Tom battles with cancer. Nice gift!
The Classic races in Horse Racing are awesome. There’s nothing like the Triple Crown. However Graded Turf Racing is just something different that brings out the pureness of the sport. Although he wasn’t wearing the Woody Hayes hat, but with a Yankee cap that Cassidy has given us a shot back to the days of the Bald Eagle.
POSTS | jcon4, 25 Jul 10 | 
Comments (2)
SAINT ANDREWS, Scotland – “Louis Who?” “How do you say his name?” “Where is he from?” “Look how little he is.” ”Man, he smacks the ball!” “He’s like a machine!” ” He’s strong and steady” Thats some of the thoughts and words coming from the home of Golf in Saint Andrews Scotland, as South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen demolishes the World’s best field at the 2010 British Open. He gained his first lead on the 7th hole in the 2nd round in which he never relinquished. Most people thought, even Tom Watson on Friday afternoon after his 12 under five stroke lead, how this young man would stand up to the pressure of Major Championship Golf as the leader after two rounds. He didn’t budge! Chased by Paul Casey in the final round but for only a few holes as the relentless steady play by Oosthuizen may have even rattled Casey a bit by eagling the par 4 9th hole after driving the green behind Casey who only managed a two putt, Louis drained his 40 footer. The win was pretty much over when Casey triple bogeyed 12 giving Oosthuizen his wide unneeded margin to just play cool smart golf the rest of the way. He finished up at 16 under to win by seven strokes! Commentators on ESPN were totally in awe of the young man as they could only be impressed by his flawless swing, coolness and professionalism. His stroll up Eighteen was well recognized by the home crowd of Scotland, where it all began. Not too many people knew his name four days ago, but will now be remembered forever! Cheers Mate! By J.Connelly
A very Powerful system in which he states a Guarantee that if you don’t profit he doesn’t want your money. Rich says,”Consider this: If you are to lose money in 
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa Its been called “The Beautiful Game” the sport of soccer has, but this World Cup Final was anything but. A record 13 Yellow cards were doled out. Seemingly for the Dutch they were given 8 of them. However that has been part of their game. It was just enough though for Spain to use it against them to capitalize. Lots of tries and misses seemed to plague the contest which may have gotten both teams frustrated with their inability to score for more than 115 minutes. Holland’s John Hietinga picked up his second yellow near his goal to the dismay of Holland followers he was sent off the pitch after the yellow turned Red. Spain was given a man advantage for the remainder 11 minutes or so, and Spain found an opening. It was Andres Iniesta open in the box took a short pass from Fabregas and directed a quick strike off the arms of Holland’s Keeper Stekelenburg in the 116′ into the back of the net for the game’s only goal. The joy of relief for the Spainards and their followers was to continue to the end of extra time as Spain wins the 2010 World Cup.
Steven A Smith, he is holding to the belief of his that Lebron will head south to Miami to complete the what could possibly be one of the greatest trios collected to perform on an NBA court in recent history. Prominent Sports Journalist, and radio host Steven A. Smith who is well respected had come out earlier last week with this report and has been steadfast with it since. Speaking with Grant Napear who is guest hosting on the Jim Rome Show has validated his belief again that Lebron James will make the move to Miami and use the TV time to gracefully bow out of Cleveland and thank them for the years of appreciation toward him as a player and to the Cleveland Cavaliers. I wonder where the Soccer Octopus would have Lebron go to?
[Cape Town, South Africa] The Dutch know the main thing about World Cup Football… They know how to win games. Thats all it takes! It doesn’t have have to be smooth, rhythmic, poetic, or creative like Brazil. Just get the ball into the other teams net more times than they do. That’s Dutch football. A feisty bunch of team players who don’t seem to give up until the job is done, did what they needed to do and defeated Uruguay 3-2 in Cape Town. On the other hand, too bad for Uruguay. A very good team that had some unfortunate circumstances entering in their semi final with The Netherlands. Without their formidable striker in Luis Suarez, they also had to bear without their main force of the suspended defender Jorge Fucile and captain Diego Lugano, who came off injured in the first half of the quarterfinal against Ghana. Uruguay’s Diego Forlan, as awesome as this guy is on a pitch, just couldn’t do it all himself. I almost would have bet he could, but withheld that task. The Dutch are a good team that was better than Uruguay. Enough so that they move to the finals of the World Cup 2010. 
The opening goal in the 18th minute by Holland’s Giovanni Van Bronckhorst was a sight to behold for those who witnessed it as it happened. A frozen rope that found the upper inside right corner of the net from 25m made it 1-0. Uruguay not to be outdone when Diego Forlan figured he needed to make something happen. In the 41′ he sent a rocketing Jabulani ball that the Dutch Keeper Stekelenburg could only flirt with by the tips of his fingers due to the fierce velocity as he watched it pierce the back of the net. It was nothing but a World Class goal that tied it 1-1. The dutch force provided the deciding goals by (70′) Wesley Sneijder 
Suarez blocked it enough for his keeper to gather it in. With the Ghana players in a rage, immediately the Ref struggled for his RED Card to show Suarez his contempt of play by using his hands! Turns out, it was the best use of hands on a soccer field since the “Hand of God” It was nothing BUT deliberate! No argument from Suarez or any of his team mates. Ghana players were in a state of joy following the referee to make sure he showed that RED Card to Suarez! Funny thing though, the ball didn’t go in the net, although it would have if not for the “Hands of Suarez!” Ghana was awarded the last play of the match, a Penalty Kick. To be taken by the latest self proclaimed “Best player in the World” Asamoah Gyan. Perfect, who else would Ghana want to take that PK and send Ghana into the Semi Finals to face The Netherlands. With nothing but a simple Pk away the Worlds “best player” hit the crossbar! NOOOOOOOOOO! To the dismay of the crowd as the Nation of Africa went silent. 
Unbelievable! said USA Commentator John Harkes. It was unbelievable! Probably a moment Ghana will never live down. Hands on heads and disbelief for Ghana. However it did only mean a Penalty shootout will take center stage to reveal a winner. Uruguay wins that 4-3. Misses by Ghana’s John Mensah and Domenic Adiyiah proved fatal for the Black Stars.
(Port Elizabeth, South Africa) – France, Italy, and now Brazil. Three former World Cup powerhouses have left some room at the top for another World Cup Winner to arrive in 2010. A Fiesty physical game on both sides that kept a very cool and fair Japanese referee team busy. A beautiful centerfield through ball by that split the Dutch defense allowed Brazil’s Robinho a free look and a strike that flew past the the Dutch Keeper Stekelenburg in the 10th minute to put Brazil up early 1-0. Gaining confidence from that goal from then it seemed all but a matter of time as Brazil continued to pursue with shots on Goal. They went in at the Half 1-0. A lofting serve in the 53′ to the face of the goal by Holland’s Wesley Sneijder glanced off a Brazilian defender Felipe Melo into the back of the net for the equaliser that sent the Orange screaming in their seats. From that point on the only real panic that set in the eyes of the Brazilian players was when Sneijder took a corner serve from off the head of his team mate and purposely directed it into the back of Brazilian net, 2-1 Netherlands!! Frustration showed on Brazil’s Melo in the 73′ for kicking cletes out on a Holland player and was Red Carded. Brazil was frantic to score but unable to after that. They were sent home heads low to try again in another 4 years. As for the Orange of Holland, they seem to be headed for a final if going through the Ghana/Uruguay winner seems less of a task than Brazil.
By J. Connelly -
Or How about when a player flops to the ground as if he took a poison dart to the liver, continues to writhe in pain clutching his padded shin and waits until the referee to gives someone on the other team a card as if the player will go into cardiac arrest if he doesn’t! The Flopping and/or diving is cheating.(See Hand of God) The Definition of Cheating: is an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one’s own interest, and often at the expense of others. There’s another to go with that. “If your not cheating, you’re not trying, and its only cheating if you get caught!” So,with so much at stake players will take the risk of cheating to gain the unfair advantage. This cheapens the game! The Goals taken away is just flat out very poor officiating. How can you have poor officiating? I absolutely don’t understand this? These officials have to be the very best FIFA can afford to put on the field of play. You have an ENTIRE WORLD of Referees to choose from! If there is any question as to whether he should be there or not, he shouldn’t be there. Why in the World would you put a Referee Koman Coulibaly from Mali into the World Spotlight to officiate his first World Cup game? He was horrible and took a goal away from the USA. No matter. It worked out anyway, right? Lucky for him. I just don’t get the idea of the ultimate stage of the World’s Game being inundated with bad Referees and mistakes and unseen events that affects games that these athletes train years for.
Not to mention the millions of fans in the Countries that thrive to cheer for and what, it all goes out the window because some lame system lacks proper officiating, or not enough of them or ones who possibly inject their personal regards into. FIFA needs to fix this! I’ll be the typical American boor and say that FIFA needs to implement a form of instant replay! They do, and it can be done! But they won’t. They don’t need to. It doesn’t affect their bottom line.$$$$$. USA’s former World Cup player and ESPN commentator Alexi Lalas portends to FIFA saying that the negative uproar is good publicity.Its good for the game as long as it does not take away fans from the game. FIFA certainly has the World in their hands, and to that point they don’t care what anyone else has to say. We have our game, we’ll let you play in it, but you will play by our rules, and if you don’t like them , well too bad! 
This is what the World Cup is. Its unique! A Vacuum of what seems like a stubborn group of people led by Sepp Blatter(who finally apologized for his poor instances of officiating to England)) who are in control and very much like the way its going. (Sounds like the BCS?) America will get over this. With all that they put up with what happened ended up that it forced the USA to play their hearts out to beat Algeria, thus they’re lack of energy for Ghana proved fatal.
