Los Angeles Times - 18.03.2020

D2 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2020 LATIMES.COM/SPORTS

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Churchill Downs an-

nounced Tuesday that horse

racing’s most celebrated

event, the Kentucky Derby

will be held Sept. 5, the Sat-

urday before Labor Day. But

neither the Preakness in

Baltimore nor the Belmont

Stakes in New York have fol-

lowed suit, leaving the status

of the Triple Crown in flux as

the country deals with the

coronavirus pandemic.

Bill Carstanjen, chief exe-

cutive of Churchill Downs, in

announcing the postpone-

ment, indicated that details

were being discussed to al-

low the other two races to be

run in their traditional order

and timetable after the Ken-

tucky Derby.

“For the second time in

the 145-year history of the

event, the first time being at

the end of World War II, we

will move the date of the

Kentucky Derby,” Carstan-

jen said. “We sincerely regret

any inconvenience this cre-

ates for our outstanding

fans, who I’m sure will

understand that there is no

doubt that this must be

done.”

If the details can be

worked out, the Preakness

would be held Sept. 19 at

Pimlico and the Belmont on

Oct. 10 at Belmont Park. All

the changes would be sub-

ject to approval of the states’

regulatory agencies, which

would be likely.

The Kentucky Horse

Racing Commission is ex-

pected to give its approval

Thursday.

“As the coronavirus pan-

demic continues to upend

American life, decisions

about large-scale public

events must prioritize pub-

lic health and safety above

all else,” Dave O’Rourke,

chief executive of the New

York Racing Assn., said in a

statement without naming a

date of the Belmont. “NYRA

will deliver an announce-

ment only when that process

has concluded to the satis-

faction of state and local

health departments. The

Belmont Stakes is a New

York institution with wide-

reaching economic impact.

We look forward to its 152nd

edition in 2020.”

The Preakness is sched-

uled for May 16 and the Bel-

mont on June 6. The Ken-

tucky Derby was scheduled

for May 2.

“We worked closely with

Churchill Downs on this

scheduling,” NBC said in a

statement. “While we appre-

ciate the traditional se-

quencing of the Triple

Crown races, these are un-

charted waters. We will work

with our partners who run

the Preakness Stakes and

the Belmont Stakes to de-

termine the most appropri-

ate timing.”

More races will be added

to the schedule for 3-year-

olds to build points leading

up to the Kentucky Derby.

Those races have not been

announced.

Santa Anita and Del Mar

do not have a strong stakes

program for 3-year-olds af-

ter the Santa Anita Derby on

April 4. So, it is expected that

any additional Kentucky

Derby points races would be

held in the East. The Travers

Stakes was scheduled for

Aug. 29 at Saratoga, so that

race will either be moved or

made irrelevant.

The Breeders’ Cup, this

year in Keeneland in Ken-

tucky, will be held four weeks

after the proposed new date

for the Belmont, on Nov. 6-7.

The move also puts rac-

ing at the start of college

football season, should it go

on as scheduled.

CHURCHILL DOWNSwas forced to postpone its marquee event, the Kentucky Derby, until September.

Andy LyonsGetty Images

Kentucky Derby moves;

will Triple Crown follow?

Run for the Roses

to be held Sept. 5. No

decision on Preakness

and Belmont Stakes.

By John Cherwa

Two days after a federal
recommendation to not
hold events of 50 or more
people for the next eight
weeks, the PGA of America
decided to postpone the sec-
ond major of the year, which
was set for May 14-17 at Har-
ding Park in San Francisco.
The PGA Championship
will be rescheduled. Augusta
National announced Friday
that the Masters, scheduled
for April 9-12, also would be
played at a later day because
of fears over the new co-
ronavirus.
Shortly after the PGA
Championship announce-
ment, the PGA Tour said it
was canceling an additional
four tournaments on its
schedule — the RBC Herit-
age at Hilton Head (S.C.);
the Zurich Classic of New
Orleans; the Wells Fargo
Championship in Charlotte,
N.C.; and the AT&T Byron
Nelson in Dallas.
The tour also said it was
canceling three PGA Tour
Champions events and post-
poning one — the Regions
Tradition, the first of five
majors on the 50-and-old cir-
cuit, moves from May 7-10 to
Sept. 24-27.

TENNIS

French Open

is pushed back

The French Open, tradi-
tionally the second of tennis’
four Grand Slam tourna-
ments, has been postponed
from May until September.

The start was pushed back

to Sept. 20, a week after the

scheduled conclusion of the

U.S. Open, making it the

fourth Grand Slam of the

year.

The French Open was to

have been played on the red

clay of Roland-Garros Sta-

dium in Paris from May 24

through June 7.

Wimbledon officials said

Tuesday, “At this time, we

continue to plan for the

Championships and the

grass court season.” Wim-

bledon, tennis’ third major

of the season, is scheduled to

be played from June 29

through July 12.

The U.S. Tennis Assn.

said in a statement that it is

continuing to plan for this

year’s U.S. Open and “is not

at this time implementing

any changes in the sched-

ule.” However, it did not rule

out postponing the event,

which is scheduled to take

place Aug. 24 through

Sept. 13 in New York.

— Helene Elliott

ETC.

Boxing trainer

Mayweather dies

Roger Mayweather, a

former two-division champi-

on and uncle and trainer to

Floyd Mayweather Jr., died

Tuesday after battling de-

clining health for years and

several medical issues, in-

cluding diabetes. He was 58.

Mayweather compiled a

professional record of 59

wins, 25 of those victories via

knockout, and also had 13

losses in a career that

spanned from 1981 through

1999 before he moved on as a

full-time trainer to his neph-

ew.

— Manouk Akopyan

Soccer officials in Europe

and South America voted to

postpone major interna-

tional tournaments sched-

uled for this summer for one

year because of the co-

ronavirus pandemic. UEFA,

the governing body for soc-

cer in Europe, will delay the

quadrennial European

Championships event that

was scheduled to kick off in

Rome in June until

June 2021.

In other news, a U.S. Soc-

cer official confirmed that

players and staff members

with the women’s national

team are being contacted

about the possibility they

might have been exposed to

the coronavirus after the

president of the Japanese

soccer association, who at-

tended the opening game of

the SheBelieves Cup on

March 5 in Orlando, Fla.,

tested positive.

Japan played Spain in

that game and the United

States faced England in the

second game of a double-

header at the same stadium,

but it is believed no member

of the U.S. delegation came

in contact with Kozo

Tashima, a former Japanese

national team player.

— Kevin Baxter

The acceptance of na-

tional letters of intent for

NCAA Division I and II

sports has been suspended

until at least April 15 as a re-

sult of the emergency re-

cruiting dead period that be-

gan last week in response to

the coronavirus outbreak,

the Collegiate Commission-

ers Assn. announced. The

suspension will be reevalu-

ated on or before April 15.

— Ben Bolch

With high schools closed,

sports competitions halted

and practices canceled in-

definitely because of the

coronavirus, the 10 commis-

sioners of the California

Interscholastic Federation

held a teleconference with

CIF executive director Ron

Nocettiand other officials to

try to come up with recom-

mendations on the future of

the spring sports season.

But no decision was made

on whether to cancel

the season or when to re-

sume.

— Eric Sondheimer

A second New York Yan-

kees minor leaguer tested

positive for the new co-

ronavirus. The player, while

in self-quarantine, reported

fatigue and an elevated tem-

perature to medical person-

nel with the Yankees. The

player was tested Sunday

and returned to self-quaran-

tine after the positive result.

... Houston Astros aceJustin

Verlander had surgery on

his right groin and is ex-

pected to be out about six

weeks.

A GROUPplays in the Stephen Curry Charity Classic on Sept. 16 at Harding Park

in San Francisco. The course had been set to host the PGA Championship in May.

Noah GrahamGetty Images for PGA of America

THE DAY IN SPORTS

Golf ’s second

major of year

is postponed

staff and wire reports

When the NBA stopped play because of the coronavirus
pandemic, the Clippers, Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz were
bunched behind the Lakers in the Western Conference stand-
ings, with three games separating the trio.
The Lakers would have hosted the Jazz on Wednesday night
and the Clippers would have played at Denver. Victories by the
L.A. teams could have given coach Doc Rivers’ club a little
elbow-bump room in its run to the playoffs.
In other sports, the Ducks were scheduled to meet the
powerful Boston Bruins (100 points in the Atlantic Division) at
Honda Center, and LAFC and Cruz Azul were to play a CON-
CACAF Champions League game at Mexico City’s Aztec Sta-
dium.
Spring-training games are gone, but if the Cactus League
had continued, the Dodgers would have played the San Diego
Padres and the Angels the Kansas City Royals.

::

Here is a look at memorable games and sports perform-
ances on this date:

81945 — In the Montreal Canadiens’ last game of the season,
Maurice “Rocket” Richard scores his 50th goal and becomes
the first NHL player to reach that mark. The Canadiens beat
the Bruins 4-2.

8 19 5 0— City College of New York beats Bradley 69-61 to win the
NIT championship.

81990 — Jeff Fryer scores 41 points to lead run-and-shoot
Loyola Marymount to a 149-115 victory over defending national
champion Michigan in the highest-scoring game in NCAA
tournament history.

82001 — Reggie Miller is the first NBA player to make 2,000
three-point shots, connecting on four tries during the Indiana
Pacers’ 101-95 victory over the Sacramento Kings.

8 2002 —Sami Kapanen’s goal with 10.4 seconds left helps the
Carolina Hurricanes extend their NHL record of ties at home to
seven in a row in a 1-1 draw with the Canadiens.

82007 — Kobe Bryant scores 50 points for the second consecu-
tive game to lead the Lakers to a 109-102 home victory over the
Minnesota Timberwolves. Bryant makes 17 of 35 shots, includ-
ing four three-pointers. Smush Parker scores 19 points for the
Lakers.

82009 — New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur sets a record for victo-
ries by an NHL goaltender, getting his 552nd in a 3-2 victory
over the Chicago Blackhawks.

8 2 013— LeBron James and the Miami Heat leave Boston with
their 23rd consecutive victory, the second-longest winning
streak in NBA history. James scores 37 points and makes the
go-ahead basket with 10.5 seconds left in the 105-103 win against
the Celtics. The 1971-72 Lakers won 33 games in a row.

8 2 016— The Pac-12 Conference gets off to a horrible start in the
NCAA basketball tournament when Oregon State and Cali-
fornia lose to Virginia Commonwealth and Hawaii, respec-
tively, in the first round. The two losses give the conference a
2-5 record, with only Oregon and Utah advancing after seven
teams had qualified, including USC, which lost to Providence.

8 2 016— Serena Williams defeats Agnieszka Radwanska in
straight sets to reach the women’s final of the BNP Paribas
Open at Indian Wells. The match, and the tournament, is cov-
ered by Helene Elliott of The Times, who notes that Williams is
a fan favorite in the desert again after her unpopular withdraw-
al from the tournament 15 years earlier.

IN SPORTS ON MARCH 18 ...

Bryant, Richard

are good for 50

By John Scheibe

To our readers

We wrote you in Tuesday’s

print edition, and if you

remember what we said ...

well, never mind! At some

point, The Times might

reduce Sports coverage to

inside the California (B)

section, but that time

won’t be this week. (Thank

you, Tom Brady and other

NFL news!) When it does

happen, we’ll try to give

you fair warning where to

find us. Our earlier

message jumped the gun,

and we apologize for that.

One thing that won’t

change is that you can

always find full Sports

coverage online at

latimes.com/sports.

The Huntington Beach

Open beach volleyball tour-

nament has been resched-

uled because of coronavirus

concerns, the AVP an-

nounced Tuesday.

The latest local sporting

event affected by the

COVID-19 outbreak, the

Huntington Beach Open

was moved back from

May 1-3 to Oct. 2-4.

“This decision comes fol-

lowing the guidance of medi-

cal professionals, the Cen-

ters for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC), as well as

a risk-management assess-

ment of each market,” the

AVP said in its statement.

“We will continue to monitor

the COVID-19 situation

daily, and we urge everyone

to follow the guidelines and

protocols put forth by public

health officials.”

The AVP announced sev-

eral other schedule changes

Tuesday. Its Gold Series

New York City Open, origi-

nally set for June 5-7, was

pushed back to June 19-21.

Events in Austin and Seattle

were canceled outright.

Two other Southern Cali-

fornia AVP events, the Her-

mosa Beach Open (July 24-

26) and the Gold Series

Manhattan Beach Open

(Aug. 14-16), remain un-

changed for now.

The AVP’s decisions

come days after the sport’s

international governing

body, FIVB, canceled several

upcoming 2020 Olympic

qualifying events and raised

the possibility that the en-

tire Olympic qualifying

process might need to be

changed.

Huntington

Beach Open

pushed back

Coronavirus concerns

prompt the AVP to

reschedule volleyball

event until October.

By Jack Harris