Other than one student-athlete, it was not a surprise that four Arkansas Razorbacks have received their releases from the University of Arkansas.
The granting of releases to student-athletes is practically a rite of spring all across the country.
What was mildly surprising at Arkansas was that it was just four players. Admittedly, the majority of the guys Coach Bret Bielema inherited have tried to step up their game, but it is still obvious that while the UA has some good players, it doesn’t have enough. Recruiting had lagged the past three seasons.
Obviously, the shocker was Brandon Mitchell leaving. Just a couple of weeks ago, the athletic Mitchell was one of the two quarterbacks, along with Brandon Allen, taking the majority of the snaps in the Red-White scrimmage.
After the game, Bielema said he needed to find a way to put Mitchell on the field more, even if that meant switching positions.
Mitchell came to the UA as a quarterback but played receiver last season, making 17 catches for 272 yards, and most of the catches were not easy.
At times, Mitchell, who played parts of two basketball seasons as a post player (LSU recruited him for basketball), looked like he could play on the next level as a receiver.
Apparently, he decided his future was as a quarterback, and if he graduates this summer as expected, he will be playing for some other school this fall.
The other guys had issues other than football.
Keante Minor was moved from receiver to running back but didn’t look comfortable at that position.
Defonta Lowe was told to straighten out his grades if he wanted to be a Razorback.
And Austin Flynn had the arrest for driving under the influence to deal with.
So four are leaving, but just four.
In the past dozen years, thoroughbred racing has been treated to four horses who have won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness only to get beat in the Belmont, leaving Affirmed in 1978 as the last Triple Crown winner.
Now comes Orb, who will have to be a super horse to win three major races in five weeks, but his victory last Saturday was as convincing as Smarty Jones’ in 2004.
Orb made his move just before the mile marker and started picking off tiring horses. Normandy Invasion, who was fighting to hold a short lived lead, started to lug out just as Orb was catching him.
Jockey Joel Rosario eased Orb out closer to the middle of the track, something you never want to do but especially in the mud, and kept closing. Normandy Invasion drifted a second time, and Rosario again eased out but also asked for Orb to find another gear, which he did and won easily.
It was trainer Shug Mc-Gaughey’s first Kentucky Derby victory, and the world of racing celebrated for the quiet, hard-working man who cut his teeth at Oaklawn Park training horses for John Ed Anthony’s Loblolly Stable. Anthony’s 1978 Oaklawn Handicap winner, Cox’s Ridge, is in Orb’s bloodline.
It didn’t take long for the famed Phipps family to notice the trainer and hire him to exclusively train for Phipps Stables. Today, Ogden Mills Phipps continues to breed, not buy horses. He and his cousin,Stuart Janney III, own Orb.
Orb, Latin for circle, is by Malibu Moon out of Lady Liberty, but has A.P. Indy and Unbridled blood running through his champion veins, too.
He won once as a 2-yearold and then came into his own, winning all four races this year. His victory in the Florida Derby was impressive, but not as much as last Saturday’s victory when he ran the last quarter of a mile in the deepest part of the mud and still won pulling away.
Orb is a legitimate Triple Crown threat.
Sports, Pages 17 on 05/07/2013