In his debut race, Nicanor stumbled early, slightly injured himself, made a mid-race charge, but then fell back, finishing 10th.

You can see video of the race here.

Hopefully, the injury is nothing serious, and the future bright for Barbaro's kid brother.

theHoundDawg

Thursday will be two years since Barbaro lost his lengthy battle to survive the horrendous injuries he suffered in the 2006 Preakness. Seldom in history had so much of the country been so taken, so horrified, so saddened, by an injury and the subsequent death of a non-human.

The legacy has not ended, however, as possibly just two days later, the long awaited debut race of Barbaro's full brother Nicanor will finally take place. It appears that Nicanor will race either this Saturday or the following Saturday at Gulfstream Park, in his long-awaited first race.

The 3-year-old bay colt has weighty horse-shoes to fill, and while his bloodline will increase speculation as to his potential success, just to see him on the track, following in his brother's spotlight, will be a wonderful spectacle to embrace.




theHoundDawg

Houston guard Aubrey Coleman "apologized" to Chase Budinger of the Arizona Wildcats, saying that he "never meant to step on him".

The video from Saturday night's game says otherwise:



Time for Arizona, the Pac-10, and the NCAA to take action and suspend Coleman for a substantial period.

Even if he's telling the truth, Coleman was more than careless in walking "over" Budinger, with reckless disregard for Budinger, lying prone on the hardwood.

theHoundDawg

Tags: Crime

It will be a lot harder for the brain surgeons to get away with claiming yet another phony National Championship this year, now that neither the writers in the AP poll nor the coaches in the USA Today poll consider them number one.

It doesn't take much for the brain surgeons to claim a phony title, as they have done at least twice in the past few years, but this year they ended number three in the AP poll, behind BCS Champion Florida, and real champion Utah, garnering only one first-place vote, and second in the coaches poll, but getting zero number one votes.

Mr. Ego, p carroll, in this morning's LA Times, though, says his team's the best and would beat Florida or Oklahoma: "'I don't think you know who the best team is,' Carroll said late Thursday night. 'You just know which team got the most votes.'" (USC finishes second in final coaches' poll, third in AP).

pete, the system played itself out, the voters have spoken. Give it a rest.

theHoundDawg

Tags: sc brain surgeons |pete carroll

theHoundDawg picked Oklahoma to win, and doesn't much care for Florida, but that's mostly a basketball issue.

After writing about how three injuries could hurt the great Laker season, a few words also seem apropos regarding the fact that the Clippers had been playing much better until they were hit with what seems like an annual blitz of injuries.

Not long after the trade for Zach Randolph, and what seemed like a new Clipper attitude, and a few victories, Randolph went down with a knee injury, joining Ricky Davis and Chris Kaman on the shelf. Then Baron Davis was injured again, and clearly, except for rookie Eric Gordon, the players they can put on the court could not compete against their injury list team, let alone the rest of the NBA.

And, it's hard to understand the recent roster moves made by the front office, i.e. Coach-GM Mike Dunleavy, releasing the capable Paul Davis, and acquiring Cheikh Samb, who now paired with DeAndre Jordan, gives the Clippers two 7-foot projects in the middle, and too few heathy NBA-quality bodies to fill out a starting five.

theHoundDawg

Tags: Clippers

The Lakers started the season doing a great impression of the best and deepest team in the NBA. They even played like if for a few weeks, and this morning, they remain tied with Cleveland (Cleveland?) for the best record in the NBA. It, of course, figured that their 14-1 start would not continue, that they would come back to earth, but also, that their superior depth would keep them from any prolonged losing streaks and guard against injuries.

But, the injury bug has hit them now, with Jordan Farmar's knee injury keeping him out two months or more, Luke Walton's foot injury keeping him out a minimum of two weeks, and now the potentially devastating loss of Lamar Odom.

They have felt Farmar's loss at point guard, with no real back-up for Derek Fisher, and now possibly being without two of their top four forwards, suddenly the roster is painfully thin. Trevor Ariza should well acclimate himself to more PT, but unless another body is picked up, this will mean more key time on the court for Josh Powell, Chris Mihm, and possibly DJ Mbenga.

We all await test results on Odom's knee, and whether or not a major move will be necessary.

theHoundDawg

Tags: Lakers

Minnesota Twins' owner Carl Pohlad died today at age 93. He is universally adored in the Twin Cities as the savior of Minnesota baseball, for his purchase of the Twins in 1984 and keeping them in Minnesota. Adoration and the glossing-over of some important facts are rempant in the Minnesota StarTribune article.

We try to keep politics in theHoundDawg Blog, and not in theHoundDawgSportsBlog, but sometimes there is spill over.

Minnesotans and the StarTribune gloss over Pohlad's financial beginnings, but with today's economic climate and the bare fact that millions of American's have lost or are in the process of losing their homes and/or their livelihoods due to predatory and unsympathetic lending practices and Laissez-faire governmental ideology, it is more than fair to point out that Pohlad began on his road to accumulating one the hundred or so largest fortunes in the US by foreclosing family farms during the Great Depression.

Maybe he was a great influence on baseball, but in other more important areas, he came up very short in the grand scheme of things.

theHoundDawg

The Bruins had an impressive victory over the Oregon Ducks yesterday. Exactly one month earlier, on Dec. 4, the Bruins lost to Texas, and the commentators were delighted over the "great senior leadership" of Longhorn guard A.J. Abrams. I wondered, where was the "great senior leadership" of the Bruin upperclassmen, especially point guard Darren Collison, who disappeared in the final minutes, just as Abrams took his game up a notch to pull Texas in front for good.

Statistically, Collison is having a great season, and his current foul-shooing streak is more than impressive. But, for the first time since last season, in a meaningful game, Collison stepped up when it counted, played like an All American, and led the Bruins to a win. In addition, Josh Shipp finally found his shot, and had his best game in memory.

The freshman-laden Bruins cannot rely on the youngsters for leadership if they are to win the Pac 10 and get anywhere in the NCAA tournament. Collison and Shipp and the other veterans need to be consistent, clutch when needed, and did I say consistent. The play of Michael Roll of late also has been outstanding - the perpetually-hyped three-point shooter (and as I have long though, underrated overall player) has been playing the best BB of his injury-plagued career, and he too needs to keep it going.

Congrats are also in order for First Brother-In-Law Craig Robinson and his Beavers, for taking it to the brain surgeons, for the first Oregon State Pac-10 win in what seems like decades, but is actually only about a season-and-a-half.

Also of note was Stanford losing decisively to Arizona State after building up an impressive 10-0 record, against a bunch of stiffs.

theHoundDawg

Tags: UCLA |sc brain surgeons