Baldwin Park man John Bucalo has lifelong love affair with race horses. His career highlights included training one of Seabiscuit's offspring for the 1949 motion picture "The Story of Seabiscuit."
Lou Carno has been an Arcadia resident for 53 years and is a longtime horse trainer. One of his early jobs was working as a groom for race horse Seabiscuit's owner, C.S. Howard. Carno served in the U.S. Marine Corps, earned his CA Trainers License in 1952. He trained for celebrity horse owners such as Betty Grable, Desi Arnaz, and Burt Bacharach, and others. He is 83 now and semi-retired.
Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Bruce Matthews was honored at Arcadia High School in a benefit for the Special Olympics. He is a hometown legend, having graduated from Arcadia High School in 1979.
The Pamplemousse, which means "the grapefruit" in French, is a fast colt. Ridden by veteran jockey Alex Solis, The Pamplemousse won the 1-1/8 mile $200,000 Grade III Sham Stakes at Santa Anita Park yesterday. His time 1:47.86 was the fastest in the Sham's 9-year history.
Pioneer of the Nile (the horse) won the Santa Anita Derby this year and will go on to run the Kentucky Derby. Bob Baffert is the trainer and Garrett Gomez is the jockey.
Race horse Apollicee, a 4-year-old California-bred son of Apollo, is enjoying his 15 minutes of fame and occupying the same stall that famous race horse Seabiscuit did back in the 1930s.
Two articles describe this coming weekend's Breeders' Cup race at Santa Anita Park. "Unbeaten Zenyatta already looks like a Classic choice," p. B1 and "Smart money may be on Einstein," p. B3.