Joe Namath Stakes

Larry Bates, a longtime Florida horseman, has passed away. He was 77. Bates won 454 races as a trainer, enjoying stakes success with Regal Joy, winner of the 1995 GIII Joe Namath S., and Black Diamond Cat, who won the Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint and Major Moran S. in 2011 and the Housebuster S. and Montbrook S. in 2013. Bates saddled the filly Cher Ami to five stakes victories in 2007. A native of Virginia, Bates worked and rode in New England before switching to steeplechase. He rode in Europe...