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Sunday, June 16, 2002

One occasionally hears about some thoroughbred jockey being accused of possessing a "battery" to shock and speed up a horse. It happened a few years ago when a battery was found on Oaklawn Park's track after the Arkansas Derby, and fingers were pointed at winning jockey Billy Patin.

But it's a misdeed virtually unheard of in harness racing.

That changed May 1 at The Meadows. That day, according to Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commission reports, track security confiscated a "battery-operated electrical device," from the tack room of John M. Sokol of Belle Vernon.

At a subsequent hearing at The Meadows May 6, the three track judges suspended Sokol's license for one year beginning May 17 and fined him $2,000.

Commission records say that Sokol admitted that the device was in his tack room, according to harness commission administrative officer Bob Meara. Nevertheless, Sokol has appealed, and the suspension and fine have been stayed until that hearing, Meara said.

Grounds for Sokol's appeal were not immediately available. Sokol did not return a telephone call Thursday from the Post-Gazette.

Muscara goes big-time

Joseph Muscara, who until fairly recently raced a lot of New Zealand- and Australia-breds at The Meadows with trainer Bob Corey Jr. because they were good buys, has taken a big financial flyer on an American-bred 3-year-old.

During the last weekend in May, Muscara, 78 and a resident of Huntingdon Valley near Philadelphia, purchased the highly regarded American-bred 3-year-old pacer Mach Three. He didn't reveal the price as part of an agreement with previous owner Linda Magid of Cambridge, Ontario. But the tab was estimated at $2 million by harness-racing experts.

At the time of the purchase, Mach Three had a lifetime record of 11 wins and two seconds with purses of $1,138,528. He was the 9-5 favorite for the June 1 New Jersey Classic.

Mach Three finished third in that race, earning $60,000 and leaving him a long way to go to win back his price for Muscara.

The colt has plenty of opportunities ahead, though. Among the races he's nominated for are the $1 million Meadowlands Pace, the $1 million North America Cup, the Little Brown Jug and the Breeders Crown.

He was to race last night in the eliminations for the North America Cup in Canada after taking last weekend off with what Muscara called a "red throat."

The expensive purchase was a change in direction for Muscara, who made his fortune in construction and real estate and still operates a commercial leasing business. Last year, when he went on a $700,000 shopping spree, he ended up with more than 20 horses, all of them older overnight horses from New Zealand.

Why the big gamble on one horse?

"I don't buy yearlings, so I'm not going to get into the kind of big races this horse is going to get into. [I bought him] to get into these races," he said.

Would he do it again? "If the same opportunity came along," he said.

Meanwhile, Muscara said, one of his New Zealand purchases, a 3-year-old gelding named Mick Jag N, won a race at The Meadowlands this past Thursday in 1:50 1/5, top time for a sophomore pacing gelding this season. Coincidentally, he said, Mach Three raced in the same time earlier this year to set the season-best time for a sophomore pacing colt.

From Sarava's own mouth

The most recent National Thoroughbred Racing Association newsletter had this cute tale about a "conversation" Sarava had with "horse communicator" Dawn Hayman the day before his Belmont Stakes score at 70-1. The talk took place as a favor by trainer Kenny McPeek and co-owner Gary Drake for ABC, which was trying to film a story for an upcoming "20/20" feature.

McPeek or Drake asked the questions and then Hayman, of upstate New York, would stare quietly at Sarava's face until she intuited his answer.

According to Hayman that day, Sarava told her something big was going on and he thought he soon would be famous.

McPeek then told Hayman to ask the colt how his feet felt.

"She replied, 'His feet feel good. I'm getting from him that there's been a problem ... I think in the right front ... but he says it's much better now,'" the newsletter said.

"Jaws suddenly dropped as Drake McPeek and his staff looked at each other in seeming amazement. After a long silence, McPeek told Hayman that indeed, the horse had once had one of the worst quarter cracks he had ever seen in his right front foot."

McPeek told the ABC crew that news of the foot had seldom, if ever, been reported before.

A lot of bettors wish this horse communicator had done a pre-race interview with defeated favorite War Emblem, too.

Pohla Smith can be reached at psmith@post-gazette.com.

Correction/Clarification: (Published June 18, 2002) Trainer John M. Sokol has appealed a suspension and fine levied by officials at The Meadows harness racing track after an electrical device was confiscated from his tack room May 1. Such devices are banned because they could be used to stimulate a horse by shocking it. Sokol was misidentified in a headline in Sunday's editions.