Enquirer staff and wire reports

Thousands of fans convened Saturday for one last Smarty party, an opportunity to say goodbye to Smarty Jones, the race horse that captivated the country.

That he fell one win shy of winning the coveted Triple Crown mattered little to the 8,000 fans at Philadelphia Park in Bensalem, Pa., who sobbed and shouted, "We'll miss you!"

He might not be back on the track, but there are worse ways to end a career than making Team Smarty millions standing stud at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky.

ARLINGTON MILLION: Kicken Kris was declared the winner when Powerscourt was disqualified for interference in the stretch. As Powerscourt took the lead, Kicken Kris tried to make a move on the inside but was bumped into the rail by Epalo, who was in between Kicken Kris and Powerscourt.

SWORD DANCER: Better Talk Now closed steadily to win the $500,000 invitational at Saratoga by 1 1/2 lengths.

Amateur baseball

CONNIE MACK: The Midland Redskins swept Arizona Subio 8-6 and 10-8 at Farmington, N.M., to win their ninth national title for 19-and-under players and first since 1998.

PAST WEST SIDE CHAMPS: American Legion Baseball, which is conducting the 2004 Great Lakes Regional at the University of Cincinnati's new park this weekend, honored seven former national championship teams from Cincinnati's West Side. The following national champs attended festivities hosted by J.B. Yeager Post 199:

1944 - Bentley Post: Ralph Kraus, Duke Linesch, Dick Hauck and national player of the year Norb Ranz.

1947 - Bentley Post: Glenn Sample, Bill Sach and national player of the year George Moeller. Former major-league managers Don Zimmer and Jim Frey.

1952 - Bentley Post: Roy Nixon, Howard Whitson and Charles Nichols. Former major-league players (and manager) Russ Nixon and Dick Drott were members of this team.

1955 - Acme Glass: Bob Birri, Tom Prout, Fred Flick, Tom Groh, Gary Haverkamp, Dick Tabler, Larry Tiettmeyer, Bob Czerwinski, Don Andres and national player of year Frank Birri.

1957 - Bentley Post: Dick King, Tom Weber, Dick Vogel, Jim Kain, Jerry Drew, Scott Seger, Tom Tiettmeyer, Dick Kuehn and national player of the year Fred Fox.

1958 - Bentley Post: Scott Seger, Tom Weber, Tom Tiettmeyer, Ken Peters, Sonny Doll, Hep Cronin, Jerry Luebbers, Joe Kaiser, Bob Steinbeck and Ed Brinkman, an accomplished major-league shortstop.

1988 - Budde Post: Jeff Wall, Dave Ott, Tom Kilgore, Brian Welling, Jason Schira, Ron Murphy, and Scott Klingenbeck, who also played in the major leagues.

Norb Wendling, a member of the first Bentley Post team in 1938, was honored.

The American Legion tournament continues today at 12:30, 4:30 and 7 p.m. The championship will be at 1 p.m. Monday and, if necessary, at 7 p.m.

Football

COMETS ROLL: Keith Brooks rushed for 182 yards on 16 carries and scored two touchdowns to lead the Kings Comets to a 27-0 victory over the Michigan Twisters in the a Mid-Continental League game at Princeton High's Viking Stadium. Larry Turney had three sacks and two fumble recoveries as the Comets limited Michigan to 29 yards total offense.

The Comets host the Detroit Seminoles on Aug. 22 at 1 p.m. at Princeton High.

Baseball

FREEDOM SPLIT: The Florence Freedom and Washington Wild Things split a doubleheader for the second straight night at Champion Window Field. Florence won the first game 7-2 before losing the second 5-4.

Golf

U.S. WOMEN'S AM: First-timer Amanda McCurdy, 20, dominated a struggling and more experienced Paula Creamer 6 and 4 to advance to the final in Erie, Pa. McCurdy will face last year's runner-up, Jane Park, 17. Park beat Sarah Huarte, 22, in a match in which Huarte three-putted the 18th.

McCurdy, a junior at the University of Arkansas, said that after making the semifinals she had 24 voice messages on her cell phone from family and friends.

"Nobody really knew who I was and everybody knew the marquee names so I did have nothing to lose," said McCurdy, the only one of the four semifinalists who wasn't on the U.S. Curtis Cup team.

U.S. AMATEUR: Cincinnatian Kevin Hall, Michael Castleforte of Springboro and Brad Wilder of Florence qualified for this week's USGA championship at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y. After two days of stroke play, Monday and Tuesday, the field will be pared to 64 for match play.

CANADIAN AM: Darren Wallace, 15, became the youngest winner of this event at Pointe-Claire, Quebec. Wallace beat Marc Bourgeois 5 and 3 in the 36-hole final. Tiger Woods was 18 in 1994 when he became the youngest U.S. Amateur champion.

Cincinnati City Junior Golf Tournament

Final Round

GIRLS

17-year-olds

Marianne Erb, 86-78-75-239

Kimberly Ericson, 82-85-82-249

Amy Gaughan, 85-83-88-256

Brittany Beard, 93-85-94-272

16-year-olds

Emily Sweetman, 76-79-85-240

Katie Dempsey, 84-80-79-243

Megan Quinlan-Waters, 90-81-91-262

Lisa Nutting, 102-91-89-282

15-year-olds

Jenny Linville, 77-80-81-238

Megan Keating, 77-86-83-246

Tori Rohan, 83-87-84-254

Allison McKimm, 85-87-92-264

Lizzy Brown, 88-88-89-265

14-year-olds

Kelly Gaughan, 92-103-100-295

Chelsea Carstens, 97-107-105-309

12-year-olds

Kari Hogeback, 29-29-42-100

Christine Foppe, 46-39-62-147

Holly Shelley, 38-47-68-153

11-year-olds

Katie Wooliver, 41-36-59-136

Katie Liest, 39-40-67-146

Jessica Stuart, 43-46-63-152

9-year-olds

Jennifer Foppe, 56-50-80-186

Nikki Hoffman, 78-84-86-258

BOYS

17-year-olds

Joshua Foster, 68-66-72-206

Eric McKimm, 70-67-70-207

Ryan Maynard, 73-72-71-216

Alex Lambrinides, 71-72-74-217

16-year-olds

Matt Cooper, 74-68-72-214

Will Kennedy, 73-72-72-217

Jordan Crone, 78-75-74-227

Robert Johnson, 78-74-75-227

15-year-olds

Mark Burch, 72-72-73-217

Michael Brown, 74-74-70-218

Brendan Fogel, 75-72-73-220

Sean Crane, 73-75-74-222

Jeffrey Hodapp, 77-72-74-223

14-year-olds

Michael Shepherd, 73-74-72-219

Shawn Miller, 76-71-80-227

Justin Epure, 78-73-82-233

Michael Oberschmidt, 74-76-87-237

Christopher Keck, 79-81-82-242

13-year-olds

Colin Crane, 74-78-83-235

Sean Keating, 74-86-77-237

Colin Reenan, 78-81-82-246

Taylor Whitehead, 78-86-82-246

12-year-olds

Scott Foster, 30-27-37-94

Mickey Sutton, 29-32-37-98

Carl Schlotman, 28-31-43-102

Alex Nikias, 31-33-39-103

11-year-olds

Matt Nickol, 29-30-41-100

Michael Schwarz, 30-33-41-104

Eric Brown, 30-35-40-105

Nathan Robbins, 30-34-41-105

10-year-olds

Carter Hibbard, 30-33-37-100

Daniel Schwarz, 31-32-39-102

Ben Lapps, 33-31-41-105

Joseph Burger, 35-39-47-121

9-year-olds

Joo Young Lee, 29-32-39-100

Joe Arcuri, 34-32-46-112

Stephen Pharo, 29-41-52-122

Nick Schlotman, 41-37-46-124