Irish Swap overcame a prerace case of the jitters to post a 2 1/2-length win Sunday in the $43,960 Johnny Morris Handicap at Arlington International Racecourse.
The Joseph ”Spanky” Broussard trainee pitched a fit in the security barn before the race.
”He got some kind of shook up in that security barn today,” Broussard said. ”I was really worried. He got hot and sweaty. We had to put the hose on him. Thank God they`re getting rid of that.”
Gov. Jim Edgar could eliminate the security barn if he signs legislation to do so this month.
Irish Swap ran third or fourth for the first half-mile of the 6-furlong race before making his move in the stretch. Seven foes and the sloppy track surface proved no problem to the winner, who posted his first career stakes victory.
The win was Irish Swap`s second in a row since Broussard took the blinkers off the son of Irish Tower. The $26,960 winner`s purse pushed the 4- year-old colt`s bankroll to $92,585. The race favorite paid $6.60, $3.60 and $3.
Irish Swap is owned by sports agent Randy Hendricks.
Simulcast news: Sportsman`s Park and members of its off-track and inter-track betting network will simulcast Friday night`s $1 million Meadowlands Pace starring Artsplace, the superstar 3-year-old colt bred and owned by Chicagoans George Segal and Brian Monieson.
Artsplace, now No. 1 in the weekly Harness Racing Communications poll ranking North America`s top standardbreds, won his elimination heat in 1:50 4/ 5 over the weekend.
On the air again: After a week`s absence, starting Monday, Eleanor Flavin and Mike Paradise will be back on SportsChannel with ”Chicago Harness Racing.”
The show, which is presented at 5 p.m. and rebroadcast at 6 a.m., was discontinued because of lack of sponsorship. But when leaders in the Illinois harness industry heard the plug was being pulled, they rallied behind Flavin and Paradise with sponsorship help.
Future stars: The standardbred starlets of the future will be on display in Chicago for the first time Wednesday night when Sportsman`s presents the American-National 2-year-old filly pace. Among the candidates are Hazelton Kay, a winner in 1:56 at the Meadowlands, and Armbro Kalinator, who was victorious in 1:57 at Scioto Downs.
Soggy scratches: A morning thunderstorm that drenched Arlington caused 19 scratches on Sunday`s card. The downpour decimated the fields of three scheduled turf races after the wet ground forced track management to move the races to the main course.
3,000 and counting: Jockey Ray Sibille, who has won riding titles at all three of Chicagoland`s major tracks, captured his 3,000th career victory Friday on the northern California fair circuit.
The 38-year-old jockey claimed the milestone victory aboard claimer Sporting Surf at Pleasanton in Alameda.
Sibille was a dominant force on the Chicago circuit in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He won four consecutive riding titles at Sportsman`s Park from 1978-81. He punctuated his 1980 Arlington crown with a top riding feat-six wins out of seven mounts. Sibille`s Chicago efforts were capped off with a Hawthorne riding title.
The Louisiana native has more than 26,000 mounts and won more than $41 million in purses in his 22-year career.
