Clanregeln » a long turf race to middle-distance

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Tim Tebow hit a ball through the left side of the infield, looped another to the same area. He fouled off a pitch and sent a grounder the other way.Then it came. Swinging inside-out, Tebow lined a hard shot toward the line in left field.Atta boy, one of his new teammates shouted from behind the batting cage.Tebows journey from star quarterback to budding baseball player made its latest stop in the desert Monday night, when he worked out for two hours with the Arizona Fall Leagues Scottsdale Scorpions.Playing baseball under the lights for the first time in more than a decade, Tebow took some fly balls in the outfield and went through five rounds of batting practice. He hit some good, some not-so-good -- but hes still early in this transformation from football to baseball.It was good getting in here, meeting everybody, getting a feel for it, swing the bat a little, Tebow said. I know its going to be a process.Tebow was one of the best quarterbacks in college football at Florida, winning a pair of national championships and the 2007 Heisman Trophy. He played three seasons with the Denver Broncos and New York Jets before his NFL career petered out.Tebow moved on to become an analyst for the SEC Network and announced last month that he would pursue a professional baseball career. Though he had not played competitive baseball since his senior year in high school, the New York Mets took a chance on Tebow, signing him to a minor league contract and hoping his exceptional athletic ability would translate to the baseball diamond.The 29-year-old Tebow hit a home run on the first pitch he saw in the Florida instructional league and went 4 for 14 in three games before the league was cut short due to Hurricane Matthew.The move to the Arizona Fall League will be a big step up in competition.The league is filled with promising minor leaguers who are there to get more seasoning, a stopping point for former No. 1 draft picks Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper. Michael Jordan also appeared in the AFL when he made his brief foray into baseball in 1994, and this years league includes Boston Red Sox infielder Yoan Moncada, rated the top overall prospect in baseball.Theres a lot of great players out here, so for me its about working hard and trying to improve, get better and remember its a process, Tebow said. But also to enjoy it. Its fun to come out and play baseball every day.Tebow arrived in Arizona on Sunday and had about a dozen fans waiting outside Scottsdale Stadium for him Monday night. After stretching and throwing with the Scorpions -- a collection of players from various big league teams -- he took some grounders and fly balls in the outfield, fluidly moving to cut off the balls hit at him.In the batting cage, the left-handed Tebow needed a bit of time to warm up, hitting everything to the left side early in the session before pulling a few shots to the right side.Next up: His first game, Tuesday in Glendale.Scorpions manager Tom Goodwin wants Tebow to play as much as physically possible so he can find his rhythm in the field and at the plate. He will play for the Scorpions during the week and continue to work for the SEC Network on the weekends.Tebow will play left field and bat seventh in Tuesdays game.Hes going to have to get ready for baseball activity, said Goodwin, the Mets first base coach.Patric Hornqvist Jersey . Shot outdoors against the stunning backdrop of Banff, Alta., the networks 30-minute original production airs tonight at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2. 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Brazilian national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has confirmed that the veteran goalkeeper is set to join Toronto on loan, saying it will help him be ready for the World Cup.ARCADIA, Calif. -- Ian Kruljac has won four races as a trainer, all with Finest City. The latest and easily the most important victory came Saturday when Finest City ran the race of her life -- as Kruljac had promised -- when pulling an 8-1 upset in the $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita.Always in the hunt after breaking sharply from post 12 in a field of 13, Finest City and jockey Mike Smith held off the oncoming Wavell Avenue to prevail by three-quarters of a length. Paulassilverlining was third, another 1-1/4 lengths back, with Taras Tango nailing By the Moon for fourth, another three-quarters of a length behind.Finest City returned $19.40 after finishing the seven-furlong distance in 1:22.37 over a fast track. A 4-year-old Pennsylvania-bred daughter of City Zip, Finest City is owned by the Seltzer Thoroughbreds of Tyler and Wayne Seltzer.The pace was hotly contested in the Filly and Mare Sprint, with Gloryzapper holding a tenuous lead over Paulassilverlining and Finest City leaving the half-mile pole, and By the Moon poised to strike from in behind that line. Approaching the quarter pole, Wavell Avenue and jockey Joel Rosario were well under way with a big looping move, and by the eighth pole, the race had boiled down to Smith going to work on Finest City to fend off Wavell Avenue.Kruljac, 28, dropped out of the Racetrack Industry Program at the University of Arizona as a senior when returning to his racetrack roots. His father, Eric, and uncle, Jay, are veterans of the California and Arizona circuits, and Ian has been a licensed trainer for only a little more than a year. Leading up to the Breederss Cup, Kruljac said he and the Seltzers had eyed the Filly and Mare Sprint with Finest City for months despite the fact she had run at a variety of distances and on both dirt and turf.dddddddddddd Given the wide-open nature of this race -- the favorite, Carina Mia, was a tepid 3-1 -- Kruljac was quietly confident in the days approaching the race, saying: Shes running, not me.She sends herself out of there and Mike chose not to take her back, Kruljac said in the race aftermath. It was absolutely perfect. She has a high cruising speed and I could tell he was in hand. It is just such an honor to compete with all these top trainers and have a top filly.The old handicapping angle of turf to dirt and a long turf race to middle-distance sprint is really a good way to get a horse ready for a race like this, said Smith. They learn to relax a little better and its easier on them.Last year at Keeneland, Wavell Avenue and Rosario won the BC Filly and Mare Sprint at 10-1. Dismissed at 13-1 this time, she was bidding to become the second two-time winner in the 10-year history of this race, following Groupie Doll (2012-13).She ran huge, said Rosario. I thought I was going to go by Mike for a minute, but she was second-best today.After the top five, the order was Spelling Again, Haveyougoneaway, Irish Jasper, Carina Mia, Wonder Gal, Gloryzapper, Paola Queen, and Gomo.The $2 exacta (12-10) paid $216.40, the $1 trifecta (12-10-9) returned $1,235.70, and the 10-cent superfecta (12-10-9-3) was worth $839.20. ' ' '