Horse Racing and Rodeo Capsules: Harris takes world bull riding title

LAS VEGAS — J.W. Harris wrapped up his second straight world bull riding title Friday night despite failing to earn any money during the first nine rounds of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

Harris, from May, Texas, equaled a feat accomplished last by bull rider Bill Nelson, who won the 1971 title without earning any money in the finals — then held in Oklahoma City.

Harris broke his right (riding) hand in the second round, and hasn’t completed a qualified ride. Freckles Brown (1962) is the only bull rider to win a world championship without completing a ride at the NFR. After missing four rounds, Harris was bucked off Hawaiian Ivory in the ninth round.

"It’s all the hard work throughout the year," Harris said. "It just proves that rodeo is 365 days a year. You have to go all year, and I did give myself a cushion in case something did happen I would be all right. I would have liked to finish 10-for-10, but stuff happens."

In the ninth round, Cody Hancock of Taylor, Ariz., had a winning 89.5-point ride on Balistic, then was taken to the hospital after sustaining a concussion.

Bobby Welsh of Gillette, Wyo., fifth with an 83 on Crazy Train, has covered a rodeo-high five bulls and leads the aggregate race with 398.5 points. Corey Navarre of Weatherford, Okla., was $70,265 behind Harris with one round left.

In team roping, world header leader Chad Masters of Clarksville, Texas, and heeler leader Jade Corkill of Fallon, Nev., won with a world-record time of 3.3 seconds.

Just minutes before Masters and Corkill recorded their record time, header JoJo LeMond of Andrews, Texas, and Randon Adams of Logandale, Nev., set a world record with a 3.4, which ended up giving them second place in the round.

Masters has earned $167,004, and Corkill has made $157,532.

"It’s extremely big for us," Masters said. "We kind of got ourselves in a bind earlier in the week, and we might not still have much of a chance, but to have any chance at all we figured we’d have to win the last two rounds. To have to be 3.3 to do it; you’d almost think it isn’t possible. But we lucked out and it turned out it was possible after all."

Header Luke Brown of Rock Hill, S.C., and Martin Lucero of Stephenville, Texas, lead the aggregate score standings with a time of 45.1 over nine rides.

Brown and Lucero, who didn’t place among the top six with a time of 5.3 in round nine, are making a run at the aggregate record of 59.1 on 10 head in 1994 held by Jake Barnes and Clay O’Brien Cooper. Only four teams in NFR history have managed a 10-head time of less than 64 seconds. Brown and Lucero needed to only average 9.6 over their last two rounds to take over the record.

In bareback riding, Bobby Mote of Culver, Ore., won with an 86.5 on Coconut Roll. He has had at least a share of first place in three of the last four rounds.

Clint Cannon of Waller, Texas, who set a PRCA record for most regular-season money won in any event with $233,504, stayed in first in the world standings with $266,585. Cannon didn’t place among the top six in round nine, so second-place Mote moved closer to the lead with $249,125, which includes an NFR-best $78,786. Mote has the aggregate score lead with 758.5 points on nine rides compared to second-place Jason Havens of Prineville, Ore., with 743 points on nine rides.

Both Cannon and Mote are in position to break Will Lowe’s single-season earnings record of $280,227 during the 10th and final round Saturday.

In steer wrestling, Casey McMillen of Craig, Colo., won in 3.3 seconds.

Lee Graves of Calgary, Alberta, remained in the world lead with $196,849 after finishing in a tie for third at 3.8. Luke Branquinho of Los Alamos, Calif., after finishing second in round nine in 3.5, was second in the standings with $196,039.

Branquinho leads both the aggregate score with a time of 37.5 over nine rounds and the NFR earnings with $83,486. Graves was second in NFR earnings with $76,275.

In saddle bronc, J.J. Elshere of Quinn, S.D., won with an 86 on Griz.

World leader Jesse Kruse of Great Falls, Mont., didn’t place among the top six. Kruse has earned $169,309, while second-place Elshere has made $153,068, including an event-best $66,162 at the NFR.

Cody DeMoss of Heflin, La., fourth with an 84 on Let ‘er Rip, took over first place in the aggregate race with a score of 725 points over nine rounds.

In tie-down roping, Clint Robinson of Spanish Fork, Utah, and Justin Maass of Giddings, Texas, tied for first with times of 7.3.

Tuf Cooper of Decatur, Texas, who didn’t place with a time of 9.2, held on to the aggregate score lead with a time of 76.9 over nine rounds. Cooper still has a shot at breaking Fred Whitfield’s 1997 tie-down roping record of 84.0 on 10 head.

Trevor Brazile of Decatur, Texas, who placed sixth in 7.9, remained the world leader with $167,610. Robinson stayed in second in the standings with $147,805.

In barrel racing, Cassie Moseley of Farwell, Texas, finished first in 13.74 while 2007 world champion Brittany Pozzi of Victoria, Texas, placed second in 13.88 and moved into first place in the world standings.

Pozzi has earned a first-place total of $241,009, while defending world champion Lindsay Sears of Nanton, Alberta, who didn’t place in the top six with a time of 14.12, was second in the world standings with $232,259.

In all-around, Brazile has earned $326,046 and remained in first place in his bid for his seventh world title. He has exceeded $300,000 a record four years in a row. Josh Peek of Pueblo, Colo., was second with $210,789.

Horse Racing

Ohio barn fire deaths raise questions

LEBANON, Ohio — Sleeping in barns is a rite of passage for some horsemen and a way of life for others, a practice that’s as much a part of the business as the $2 exacta.

Some tracks embrace the idea, others don’t. Some tracks offer dormitories to give stable workers a housing option, others don’t. Regulations vary from track-to-track and state-to-state, though they aren’t always aggressively enforced.

Ronnie Williams and James "Turtle" Edwards knew the rules at Lebanon Raceway in southwest Ohio strictly prohibited sleeping in tack rooms and often broke them anyway. The decision may have cost them their lives after a fire ripped through Barn 16 last weekend, killing the longtime grooms and 45 horses.

The tragedy has placed an uncomfortable spotlight on the lives of stable workers like Williams and Edwards and the complicated relationship track operators have with the people considered the backbone of the industry.

"It could have happened anywhere," said groomer Jackie Winn, who considered the two men close friends.

So why would they put themselves at risk?

The barn can provide solitude, cheap if not exactly luxurious accommodations and a short commute to work.

It also offers peace of mind to the people who make their livelihood at the track, be they owners, trainers or groomers.

"Horses come first," said Cathy Prickett, who runs the track kitchen at the tiny Lebanon Raceway and has a handful of standardbred harness racing horses stabled on the backside of the half-mile oval.

Though the accident remains under investigation by the state fire marshal’s office, criminal intent has been ruled out.

The fire isn’t the first to devastate the track. Nearly three dozen horses were killed in 1988 when a faulty portable hot water heater sparked a blaze that turned a barn 100 yards from the grandstand into ashes.

"It’s a part of the business," said owner and trainer Stan Crowe, who lost four horses in last week’s fire.

Some industry organizations are attempting to change that.

The Association of Racing Commissions International has put forth a set of model rules it recommends states follow. The rules don’t speak specifically to sleeping in the barns, they do prohibit smoking in stalls or shedrows, building a fire in a barn or leaving an electrical appliance unattended.

The recommendations are just that. It largely remains up to the tracks to set the ground rules.

Sleeping in the tack rooms is allowed at Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, though track officials try to make sure conditions are benign. Track stewards confiscated 30 hot plates and electric skillets during a barn sweep in May because they were considered a fire hazard.

Comparing the effectiveness of one track policy to another is also difficult because enforcement can vary so widely, even within the same state.

Scioto Downs, located about 80 miles east of Lebanon in Columbus, allows workers to stay in the tack rooms during its meets. The track also has two dormitories that provide housing for horsemen for $25 a month.

Whether Lebanon provides the same option is up for legal debate.

The Ohio State Racing Commission’s rulebook says racing permit holders are required to provide shelter for stable workers during live meets. The meet at Lebanon runs on Friday and Saturday nights from the fall through the spring.

There are no dormitories on the grounds at Lebanon, though under the OSRC’s guidelines it is possible that the tack rooms inside the barns would be considered adequate said OSRC deputy director John Izzo.

The OSRC has not looked into the housing situation at Lebanon because it hasn’t received any official complaints.

"If nobody is complaining that something is wrong, it’s not something we’re ignoring, it’s just not our primary focus," Izzo said.

Just who is responsible for making sure living space is provided remains in question.

Izzo said the obligation lies with the permit holders. Miami Valley Trotting Association president Karen Heaberlin argued that it’s up to the Fair Board. Fair Board attorney Bill Schroeder maintains the racing associations are the ones required to make sure they meet the OSRC guidelines.

"It’s not up to us," Schroeder said. "The (racing associations) are the permit holders and have to comply."

The trouble is even if the tack rooms are considered adequate housing, they’ve been deemed off limits by the Fair Board, not the permit holders. There are signs scattered across the backside alerting workers that the barns are closed at night.

Williams and Edwards saw them every day. They ignored them.

"They stayed there because they didn’t have any place to go," said Stan Crowe, a longtime owner and trainer at the track.

And even if they did, odds were the two men would have opted for the quiet sanctity of the barns anyway rather than the AllState Inn located across the street from the track, where rates are about $45 a night.

The average groom salary depends on the track and the trainer, but Winn, for example, said he makes around $290 a week and supplements his income by doing some additional work for the Warren County Fair Board.

"Ronnie didn’t know any different," said Diane Williams, who grew up at the track alongside her older brother and still dabbles in the business when she’s not working at a nearby Wal-Mart.

While Williams "could save a dime" according to Winn and had family in the area, no one raised a fuss when he chose stay in the barn. Most say it’s because sleeping at the track is such an accepted part of the racing culture, particularly for the people who spend more time with the horses than anyone else at the track.

"The (grooms’) responsibility is their horses," said Elliott Walden, vice president and racing manager at WinStar Farms in Versailles, Ky. "It’s not unlike a family whose father feels they need to live with their children. These grooms feel like they need to live with their horses."

Some horsemen view their nights in the barns as a badge of honor.

Kentucky Derby winning trainer Rick Dutrow boasted about sleeping on a cot at Aqueduct Race track in New York for months a decade ago before his career finally took off.

"It’s part and parcel of it," said Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day, who said the only reason he never slept in a tack room is because he had a small camper on the back of his pickup truck.

It’s why no one complained when Williams and Edwards, nicknamed "Turtle" for his slow, deliberate walk, bunked in the tack rooms. The two were lifelong racing nomads who went from meet to meet and track to track looking for work.

They have been fixtures during Lebanon’s meet for years, and the last night of their lives were like hundreds before it.

Williams and Edwards were among the last people on the backside following last Friday’s 14-race card. They ordered a pizza from Domino’s before heading into Barn 16, one of four football-field size barns at the track.

"They probably got their belly full and fell asleep," said Winn.

He hopes their deaths will wake up the industry.

-- Will Graves

Rosario ties Shoemaker with 6 winners at Hollypark

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Joel Rosario has ridden six winners at Hollywood Park, tying a track record originally set by Hall of Fame jockey Bill Shoemaker in 1953.

Rosario rode five consecutive winners on Friday, sat out the seventh race, and then won the eighth with Stockings to tie the mark Shoemaker set on June 20, 1953.

Shoemaker repeated the feat in 1970. Laffit Pincay Jr. equaled it in 1968 as did Kent Desormeaux in 1992.

Rosario finished second in the first race and his mount in the seventh was scratched. The 24-year-old rider from the Dominican Republic leads the jockeys’ standings with 31 winners, eight ahead of Rafael Bejarano.

Rosario twice rode five winners during this year’s spring-summer meeting at Hollywood Park.

She’s Prime wins Aqueduct feature

NEW YORK— She’s Prime has held off even-money favorite Lemon Punch by a half length in the $46,000 allowance feature for New York-bred fillies and mares at Aqueduct.

A 3-year-old trained by Mike Miceli, She’s Prime ran the one mile Friday in 1:40.42 on the fast track. Jose Lezcano was aboard as she earned her third win in 14 starts.

She’s Prime paid $15.80, $5.70 and $4.20. Lemon Punch returned $2.60 and $2.30. Decorated Court paid $5.60 to show.