(RAEFORD) - A Robeson County lawmaker is betting on gambling at the Stoneybrook Steeplechase will help the Hoke County economy.

State Senator David Weinstein's bill would permit pari-mutuel betting at the races, which are held once a year at Carolina Horsepark at Five Points, off NC 211 between Raeford and Aberdeen.

Weinstein and others say betting would increase attendance and boost tourism spending. Opponents say gambling would have negative effects on society and is contrary to religious and moral
standards.

Every house, they say, carries secrets. A four-bedroom semi-detached in Allentown has just given one up. Tim Briody, who runs a real estate company in the Pennsylvania town, buys houses, fixes them up, and places them on the market again. He is used to making little discoveries between the cracks and crannies.

Briody is yet to set his eyes on an original copy of the Declaration of Independence, but he not infrequently comes across curious relics from an earlier time.

"We tend to mostly find old bottles or coins," he said.

But his latest discovery was a little more unusual.

LAS VEGAS - Jamie Michelson Jr. followed in the footsteps of lifelong friend Steve Wolfson Jr. and emerged victorious to win in the sixth annual Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship on Saturday afternoon at Bally's-Las Vegas. Michelson won the championship's $200,000 grand prize and earned the title of DRF/NTRA Handicapper of the Year just two years after watching Wolfson accomplish the same feat at NHC IV in Jan. 2003

Michelson, a 38 year-old advertising account director from West Bloomfield, Mich., topped a field of 214 players to win the $412,400 championship. He won a first prize of $200,000, which was a record high payoff in the history of the event.

The inaugural World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings Conference took place in Hong Kong in December 2004.

The Conference was held under the auspices of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA), and superseded the International Classifications Conference, which had been held annually since 1977 under the direction of the European Pattern Committee

The Conference compiled the World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings, the end of season assessment of those horses which had raced in or been trained in countries whose racing season ran from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2004.

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Germany will lose the Athens Olympics team showjumping gold medal after the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) said it had disqualified Goldfever and rider Ludger Beerbaum for doping.

"The Judicial Committee has agreed that the horse Goldfever and the (rider) must be disqualified from the event and that all prizes and prize money won at the event must be forfeited," the FEI said.

"The FEI will modify the team results at the Olympic Games."

Ointment containing the banned substance Betamethasone, a type of steroid, was used to treat eczema on the horse before the Games.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Taking advantage of a surface switch and the withdrawal of four rivals, Truly a Judge won his second consecutive graded stakes in Saturday's $150,000 San Gabriel Handicap at Santa Anita.

Sent off as the 3-5 favorite, Truly a Judge stalked pacesetter Forty Suertudo to the middle of the backstretch, took the lead before the final turn and held off a late threat from Star Cross to win by a length.

Ridden by Martin Pedroza, Truly a Judge ($3.60) finished 1 1-8 miles in 1:48.90. "I had a lot of horse underneath me," Pedroza said.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Hollywood Park began its fall meeting in 1981, or, as it has come to be known, 3 BBC (Before Breeders' Cup). The Hollywood Futurity was one of the elite races of the meet, with a purse of $715,100. Two years later, in a move that made Dr. Evil proud, it topped one . . . million . . . dollars.

Besides big money, the Hollywood Futurity offered a chance in those BBC days to settle championships outside the fall meeting in New York.

Solerina put up a brilliant front-running performance to give the Bowe family their fifth success in the Ballymore Properties Hatton's Grace Hurdle on a star-studded card at Fairyhouse on Sunday.

The seven-year-old mare won the Grade One contest 12 months ago, while her older stable companion Limestone Lad took the two-and-a-half-mile feature three times.

Gary Hutchinson sent Solerina straight into the lead and she was never threatened after jumping with her usual fluency, stretching clear on the run-in to score by six lengths from Brave Inca, who made several mistakes as he tried to keep tabs on the leader.

Stakes winners Americas Pride and Kya Jo face off in Friday's $8,000 Oregon HBPA Invitational Handicap, a six-furlong test for Oregon-bred 3-year-old fillies that has drawn a field of eight.
Americas Pride will tote high weight of 121 pounds on the strength of her record of 5 wins from 19 starts and $74,355 in earnings. Americas Pride, a daughter of Baquero who races for Margaret Root and Vogt Stables, won two stakes as a juvenile. She won the 6 1/2-furlong Knights Choice Stallion Stakes at Emerald Downs and the six-furlong Bill Wineberg Stakes over this track.

Owner Gary Tanaka was born in Idaho, and resides in London, but he is certainly quite at home in Long Island.

The Long Island Handicap, that is. For the third time in five years, Tanaka won the Grade 2 Long Island with a European-based 3-year-old filly. Saturday, Tanaka won the $150,000 turf stakes with Eleusis, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Diesis who had won 5 of 6 starts racing in France.