Kentucky
Travis Kelce Explains Why His Racehorse Won’t Run in Kentucky Derby
Travis Kelce LEANDRO LOZADA/AFP via Getty Images)
If Travis Kelce returns to the Kentucky Derby next year, it will be as a spectator — and not as the owner of one of the participating horses.
Travis, 34, gushed about his racehorse, aptly named Swift Delivery, to his brother, Jason Kelce, on an episode of their “New Heights” podcast, which aired Wednesday, August 4. In their discussion, he confirmed Jason’s claim that Swift Delivery, who is 3, has already aged out of eligibility for Triple Crown races.
Swift Delivery can still compete in other races, however, and Travis revealed that the gelding finished second in the Toronto Cup Stakes over the weekend. He also gave fans a Swift Delivery scouting report.
“I liked the way that Swift Delivery ran. I’ve seen three or four races that Swift Delivery has been in, and sure enough heard nothing but great reviews,” he said. “It’s more of a finishing horse. It comes around that [last] turn and just hits the top speed and kind of saves the last straightway with all the juice that it’s got.”
While football remains Travis’ first sporting love, he has dived right into the horse-racing world, brought on by his appearance at the 2024 Kentucky Derby. He attended as a guest of family friends Bruce and Alex Zoldan, who are horse owners themselves.
“I had one of the best times ever at the Derby and they were my hosts, and sure enough, I was like, ‘Man, it’d be fun to get involved and see one of your horses in a race,’” he said. “Sure enough, they asked me if I wanted to jump in on a 3-year-old they had, and it made sense to team up with this one, it being Swift Delivery.”
Even before we knew Travis bought a horse after the race, his attendance garnered plenty of headlines. Some fans lauded (while others mocked) his Derby fashion sense as he donned a pinstriped suit and black fedora on the red carpet before watching the race and coming within inches of winning $100,000.
Travis was, as he put it, “a nose away” from a six-figure payday, which he would have earned if Japanese horse Forever Young placed second. He placed third.
“I was a beginner. I didn’t get too far into that,” Kelce said of his betting. “I just wanted to f–king put the money that I brought in there and throw it down on like one horse and just get f–king pumped if that thing was even close. And sure enough, coming around that corner, you see that thing … come up.”
Kentucky
PREVIEW: Kentucky wraps up home-and-home series with Belmont on the road
Kentucky has had a week off following their 82-55 win over Central Michigan, and now, the Cats retake the court down in Nashville to take on the Belmont Bruins. This is the second game of a home-and-home series between the two programs. Kentucky won its contest against Belmont last season by just six points at home — an 84-78 game in which the Bruins gave Kentucky all it could handle.
Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s Belmont squad and the upcoming game.
Bio Blast
Belmont is 4-5 on the season, but this isn’t your average 4-5 Missouri Valley Conference team. Three of those five losses came to AP ranked teams and Princeton, who they also lost to, was the first team outside of the AP Poll in the latest release. So, make that four of their five losses that have come to AP top 26 teams.
Amidst those losses came a defeat to McNeese. That’s their only real stinker on the season. For most of the game, Belmont kept it close against No. 9 Oklahoma, No. 18 Tennessee, No. 21 Ohio State and Princeton who, again, is right outside the AP top 25.
Kentucky is 4-0 all-time against Belmont, and all of those matches have taken place since 2014. Georgia Amoore had 23 points and five assists in last year’s win over the Bruins. Amelia Hassett had a notable outing as well, scoring 16 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and getting two steals as she played in all 40 minutes of the game.
Scouting Report
Speaking of last year’s game, guard Jailyn Banks had 23 points against the Wildcats, and she could very well put up a similar number this time around. As a junior, Banks is averaging 14.9 points, 3.3 assists and 2.8 rebounds per game. She has scored in double figures in all of Belmont’s games this season except for one, when she put up seven points against the Buckeyes.
Avery Strickland has been a big contributor for them as well, averaging 11.3 points and 2.9 rebounds per game this season. Tuti Jones, who had 11 against Kentucky a year ago, is putting up 9.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 3.2 steals per game.
Hilary Fuller is another name to watch for Belmont. She’s currently averaging 11.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game while shooting 37.5% from deep. As a team, Belmont is shooting just 30.6% from three-point range, but she’s one of their players that can get hot in a hurry from the perimeter.
Belmont Bruins roster
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Projected Kentucky Starters
#5 – Tonie Morgan
5-FOOT-8 – GUARD – SENIOR
12.4 PPG – 8.5 APG – 2.9 RPG
#0 – Jordan Obi
6-FOOT-1 – GUARD – GRADUATE STUDENT
12.2 PPG – 6.2 RPG – 1 APG
#32 – Amelia Hassett
6-FOOT-4 – FORWARD – SENIOR
9.7 PPG – 6.1 RPG – 2 BPG
#7 – Teonni Key
6-FOOT-5 – FORWARD – SENIOR
11.5 PPG – 5.7 RPG – 1.6 BPG
#13 – Clara Strack
6-FOOT-5 – CENTER – JUNIOR
15.2 PPG – 10.2 RPG – 2.7 BPG
Phoenix’s Prediction
Score: 76-60, Kentucky
MVP: Amelia Hassett
Belmont’s 4-5 record is deceiving, and I would expect them to give Kentucky some trouble on the road. I don’t think they’ll ever truly threaten to win the game, but at the same time, I don’t think Kentucky is going to blow this team out to the point Gabby Brooks gets any PT. Give me Amelia Hassett to put up a team-high 20 points in the win.
How to Watch/Listen
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Want to interact with the KSR crew during tonight’s game? Consider joining the conversation on KSBoard, where we’ll be sharing live updates while also answering questions and providing real-time analysis (and probably complaining about the officiating).
Kentucky
Even Indiana-Kentucky basketball rivalry couldn’t resist HeisMendoza chants
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Fernando Mendoza’s Heisman Trophy triumph made noise as far afield as Rupp Arena on Saturday night.
Indiana could not claim too many fans in the building, in the Hoosiers’ first regular-season game against Kentucky in 14 years, unsurprising given the venue. But the ones who made the trip east on I-64 made themselves heard more than once during a 72-60 loss.
That included what has become a familiar chant among IU fans, one that broke out not long into the game and yet owing absolutely nothing to what was happening on the floor.
As news filtered through the arena that Mendoza had won his program’s first Heisman Trophy, fans seated in small clusters — including one group just a few feet away from the media seating area — began loudly chanting “Heis-Mendoza!” at the news.
It was the latest reminder of IU’s brave new world, with football and basketball co-existing so significantly, so late into the calendar. Curt Cignetti’s team, the No. 1 seed in this year’s College Football Playoff, will next play in the Rose Bowl, on New Year’s Day in Los Angeles.
The Hoosiers await the winner of the 8/9 game between Oklahoma and Alabama, in Norman.
In the meantime, they’ve spent the pre-Christmas period resting on the field, while cleaning up off it. Mendoza and Cignetti were named Big Ten offensive player and coach of the year, respectively, while Carter Smith won the conference’s lineman-of-the-year award.
Cignetti has also won multiple national coach-of-the-year awards, with more potentially on the way.
Mendoza added a clutch of trophies to his mantle this weekend in New York, including not just the Heisman Trophy but the Davey O’Brien Award for nation’s best quarterback and the Maxwell Award for nation’s best player. Mendoza is also the first Hoosier to win the O’Brien Award, and the second (after Anthony Thompson) to win the Maxwell.
More than a dozen Hoosiers have landed All-Big Ten and/or All-America honors since their Big Ten championship game triumph a week ago. A handful — including Smith, Aiden Fisher, Riley Nowakowski, Pat Coogan, Isaiah Jones and others — traveled to New York to celebrate with their quarterback.
Alberto Mendoza, Fernando Mendoza’s backup and younger brother, also made the trip. Both brothers became visibly emotional when Fernando referenced his younger brother during his acceptance speech.
The Hoosiers ultimately left Rupp Arena empty handed Saturday. But their football program once again left them celebrating, nonetheless.
Want more Hoosiers coverage? Sign up for IndyStar’s Hoosiers newsletter. Listen to Mind Your Banners, our IU Athletics-centric podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the latest on IndyStar TV: Hoosiers.
Kentucky
After more than 40 years, a woman is reunited with her Kentucky family after allegedly being abducted by her mother | CNN
Three-year-old Michelle “Shelley” Newton poses for the camera in a sailor’s outfit, smiling wide, showing the gap between her two front baby teeth in an undated missing persons flyer from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
“Michelle was taken by her Mother,” it reads.
Now, Michelle, 46, is on a path to healing. Her mother is facing one charge.
The toddler’s vanishing took place in spring 1983, after her mother Debra Newton claimed she was “relocating to Georgia” from Louisville, Kentucky, “to begin a new job and prepare a new home for the family,” according to a Monday news release from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
CNN affiliate WLKY spoke to Joseph Newton, Debra’s husband and Michelle’s father, in 1986 after three years of searching for his daughter. He said the plan had been to move to Georgia. Debra took Michelle early, he added.
When he got there, he said they were gone.
Sometime between 1984 and 1985, a “final phone call” occurred between Debra and Joseph Newton, according to the sheriff’s office. Then, “both mother and daughter vanished.”
A custodial-interference indictment warrant soon followed.
“Wouldn’t you want your child back? At least to see her grow up?” Joseph Newton asked WLKY nearly four decades ago.
Police at one point thought it was possible Michelle was in Clayton County, Georgia, a suburban county almost 20 miles south of downtown Atlanta, according to the flyer.
Despite no signs of Michelle or her mother and Debra’s inclusion on the FBI’s “Top 8 Most Wanted parental-kidnapping fugitives,” Michelle’s case was dismissed in 2000 when “the Commonwealth” of Kentucky could not reach her father, the release said.
Five years later, Michelle, who would have been in her 20s, was removed from national child missing databases, according to the sheriff’s office.
The undated missing persons flyer says Michelle’s entry in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children system and Debra’s warrant for custodial interference were recalled in 2005 “due to inaccurate information.”
The case was reindicted in 2016 after a family member “prompted detectives to reexamine the case.”
Earlier this year, 66-year-old Debra Newton had been spotted in Marion County, Florida, going by a different name.
When a Crime Stoppers tip identified the woman as a possible match, a US Marshals Task Force detective compared a recent photo to a 1983 image of Debra, and a Jefferson County detective “confirmed the resemblance,” the release said.
Authorities collected DNA from Debra’s sister in Louisville, and it showed a “99.9% match” to the woman in Florida.
When police arrived at her door, Michelle told WLKY that officers officially broke the news, “You’re not who you think you are. You’re a missing person. You’re Michelle Marie Newton.”
Michelle, who had been living under a different identity, called the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office upon discovering her true family history, according to the release.
On the other side of that phone call was a reunion with family she hadn’t seen in decades, including her father.
“She told us she didn’t realize she was a victim until she saw everything she had missed,” Chief Deputy Col. Steve Healey said.
“She’s always been in our heart,” Joseph Newton told CNN affiliate WLKY. “I can’t explain that moment of walking in and getting to put my arms back around my daughter.”
“I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything. It was just like seeing her when she was first born. It was like an angel.”
The resolution of a case spanning more than 40 years reflects a legacy of “extraordinary” detective work from the sheriff’s office, Healey said in the release, including its long-held philosophy that “no family seeking help is ever turned away.”
Healey says it also proves the importance of one courageous tipster. “People think calling in tips is ‘snitching.’ It isn’t,” he said. “You’re helping victims. You’re helping families. This case proves that one phone call can change a life.”
A family member of Debra’s traveled to Kentucky and posted her bond.
She has been arraigned on a felony charge of custodial interference, according to the Commonwealth’s Attorney Office in Jefferson County. Felony custodial-kidnapping charges carry no statute of limitations in Kentucky.
CNN has reached out to the Louisville-Jefferson County public defender’s office for comment on Debra Newton’s legal representation.
Debra Newton voluntarily appeared in court for her arraignment in Louisville, the release states.
Both Michelle and Joseph Newton were in attendance.
Michelle doesn’t appear to be taking sides. She told WLKY: “My intention is to support them both through this and try to navigate and help them both just wrap it up so that we can all heal.”
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