Fast Break

Arena football

Former Shock QB af2 player of year

Arkansas Twisters’ quarterback Kyle Rowley is the arenafootball2 player of the year, as selected by af2 head coaches and media members.

Rowley, who led the Spokane Shock to the af2 title in 2006, led the Twisters to an 11-5 regular season record. He started all 16 games, completing 68 percent of his passes (379-557) for 4,393 yards and 89 touchdowns.

For his career, Rowley ranks among the league’s all-time leaders in completion percentage (3rd – 66.7) and completions (10th – 1,138).

The af2 season concludes Monday when the Tennessee Valley Vipers take on the Shock for the ArenaCup in the Arena at 7 p.m.

Horse racing

1980 Derby winner dies unexpectedly

Genuine Risk, one of only three fillies to win the Kentucky Derby, died Monday at Newstead Farm in Upperville, Va.

The 1980 Derby winner died peacefully about 7:30 a.m. at the age of 31 after eating a hearty breakfast and being turned out in her paddock, said Cindy Perry, an office administrator at the farm. Perry said the filly had not been ill.

Genuine Risk was the oldest living Derby winner, and the only filly to finish in the top three in each of the Triple Crown races. Ridden by Jacinto Vasquez in all three, she was second to Codex in a controversial Preakness, and then ran second in the Belmont Stakes.

It was in the 1980 Derby that Genuine Risk made history, taking a commanding lead in the stretch of the 106th Derby and outrunning Rumbo and Jaklin Klugman for the victory. She paid $26.80 to win and immediately became one of the top fillies in racing history.

Genuine Risk was trained by Leroy Jolley, a Hall of Famer who five years earlier guided Foolish Pleasure to victory in the Derby.

Columnist

See ya later

Syndicated columnist Norman Chad is on vacation. His column is scheduled to return on Sept. 2.