June 1, 2008
Big Brown Apple
Belmont festivities take over town
Two days before Kent Desormeaux runs for the Triple Crown aboard Big Brown in the Belmont Stakes, he will dash for cash in Bryant Park. On Thursday, the 5-foot-3, 116-pound jockey will compete alongside 6-3, 261-pound Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora as part of Wachovia's Way2Save Challenge Tour which educates Americans on how to save. Both men will enter into the world's largest money machine that will circulate cash for 60 seconds. Wachovia will make donations to the two athletes' respective charities. Wachovia will give away $20,000, $1,000 every 10 minutes during the 11 a.m. event. Check www.wachovia.com/way2savetour for details.
Desormeaux will join horse owner Larry Roman and Triple Crown commemorative artist Susan Sommer-Luarca at the ESPN Zone Press Luncheon Tuesday to unveil Luarca's official poster entitled "Big Brown - Road to the Triple Crown" which will benefit the NTRA Charities-Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund." On Wednesday, before the post-position draw, Desormeaux will join Luarca to paint with the children of Anna House at Belmont Park - the first on-site child-care center at a racetrack in the US for backstretch workers. . . . Old Mutual presents "An Evening With Jean Cruguet and Ron Turcotte" the night before the Belmont at Mickey Mantle's Restaurant. Call Randall Sussman at (609) 992-7229 for tickets and information. The $175 entry fee includes an open bar, food, a personally signed print from Cruguet (aboard Seattle Slew) and signed photo of Turcotte (aboard Secretariat).
It's a run-derful week
Running legends Grete Waitz, Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter will be the guests at a lunche on at Tavern on the Green in Central Park tomorrow to help kick off the first-annual Running Week in New York as New York Road Runners celebrates its 50th anniversary on Wednesday.
Waitz won a record nine New York City Marathon crowns, Rodgers won four in a row from 1976-79, and Shorter uttered the famous line before running in the inaugural five-borough marathon in 1976 won by Rodgers: "I just wanted to show up and see how the police would clear the streets."
Running Week will include a free five-mile anniversary run on Wednesday beginning at 5:30 a.m. in Central Park and the ING New York City Marathon lottery selection later that day. It also will include Run to Work Day on Friday with pre-set routes and Saturday's NY Mini featuring some of the world's best female distance runners competing in a 10K in Central Park. For information on Running Week go to www.nyrr.org.
'Journey' near end
George Martin's "A Journey for 9/11" next week will cross the border from Arizona into California, the 13th and last state in his 3000-plus-mile cross-country walk to raise money for the healthcare costs of thousands of heroic Ground Zero Workers now in severe medical distress. Martin has raised $2 million in cash that will be matched in services provided by three NYC area medical centers. The journey is scheduled to conclude on June 21 in San Diego.
Talkin' the rock in Iraq
