by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHEIM–This is great news for California Chrome that the New York Racing Association is allowing CA Chrome to wear a breathing strip for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday June 7th’s race in New York in his bid for a Triple Crown.

Chrome already the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, will have the chance to win the Triple Crown and the last Triple Crown winner was back in 1978 when Affirmed won the Belmont and became the 11th horse in the history of the Triple Crown to do it.

This is great news that the NY Racing Association has approved the breathing strip for CA Chrome because according to the Association it does not enhance the horse nor does it harm the horse according to the ruling. There is now a very good chance that CA Chrome can win the Triple Crown and again you have to go back to some of those great horses who won the Triple Crown with Affirmed (1978), Seattle Slew (1977), and the most famous horse of them all Secretariat (1973).

The announcement on Monday is very good news for horse racing and let’s face it this is one of the very oldest sports that there is and the first Triple Crown winner was in 1919 won by Sir Barton. There are millions of people who are going to follow this race on June 7th around the world.

Horse racing is a huge business, it’s a humongous business, this is good news, and hopefully California Chrome can make history. This is great and with all the sports coverage with ESPN and FOX that has everything covered and horse racing is still going strong. I always get a kick out of these races and the races are only a couple of minutes long.

A’s are sizzling: The A’s are red hot after a successful series against Chicago at Oakland and sweeping Cleveland in three and now have a six game win streak going into Tampa Bay on Tuesday night.

On Friday the A’s Josh Reddick drove in six runs and Yoenis Cespedes drove in five runs on Sunday, and they go onto Tampa for a three game series. In Anaheim the Angels are very hot they’ve won eight out of the last ten games and are in second behind Oakland by three and half games.

The Angels took three out of four from Tampa Bay who have been very good and who had very good pitching from the Rays David Price. The Halos Albert Pujols hit two homers against Price, right now you have Oakland in first place and the second best record in the Majors.

Then you have the Angels just 3.5 games behind the A’s in the A.L.West and the Angels are playing very good ball. This will be a very interesting race. Texas and Seattle are falling behind. The Astros are in Anaheim for three games, but the A’s can’t be any hotter than this in Tampa Bay.

Breaking News: The Sacramento Rivercats are under consideration to become the San Francisco Giants Triple A minor league affiliate. The Rivercats are currently the A’s Triple A affiliate.

This would work well for the Giants because Sacramento is just a two and half hour drive from the City. Right now the Giants Triple A team is in Fresno which is a four hour drive to the City.

Minor League Baseball is very profitable, the Rivercats they’ve won for a bunch of years. The Cats are the best minor league organization in baseball. The Cats have a beautiful yard Raley Field right there by the Sacramento River.

The Giants are very interested in getting the Rivercats and the Rivercats are in a very good bargaining position. The A’s would love to stay with Sacramento of course and the Giants want to get the Rivercats.

So here’s a situation they might to try the Giants brand which is more popular right now since they have won two World Series in the last four years. So it would not be surprising if the Rivercats take the Giants because they’ve been with the A’s and have been very successful but the Giants would love to have the Rivercats and bump the A’s out of Sacramento for Triple A baseball.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland Athletics baseball and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com