The BulleTin • SaTurday, May 1, 2021 B3
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
Derby
NWHL holds door open in bid to
thaw relationship with PWHPA
Continued from B1
A victory by Essential
Quality would bring extra
scrutiny of human rights is-
sues involving the sheikh,
who won’t be among the lim-
ited fans in attendance.
The Kentucky Horse Rac-
ing Commission received a
complaint this week from a
group of human rights attor-
neys and students at the Uni-
versity of Louisville seeking
to have Sheikh Mohammed
banned from the Derby over
alleged human rights abuses.
A judge in England ruled
that he orchestrated the ab-
ductions of two of his adult
daughters.
Essential Quality’s jockey,
Luis Saez, is seeking his first
Derby win after crossing the
finish line first aboard Maxi-
mum Security in 2019 only to
have his colt disqualified.
“Essential Quality is a de-
serving favorite,” trainer Todd
Pletcher said, “but I think it’s a
wide-open race.”
Pletcher, a two-time Derby
winner, saddles four start-
ers, led by 6-1 shot Known
Agenda. His others are listed
at double-digit odds: 20-1 Dy-
namic One, 30-1 Bourbonic
and 50-1 Sainthood.
The biggest question for
these 3-year-olds is whether
they can handle the 1¼ miles
while getting jostled in a field
of 19. King Fury spiked a fe-
ver on Friday and trainer
Ken McPeek said he would
be scratched. As a result, the
four horses to the outside
of the colt’s No. 16 post will
move in one spot in the start-
ing gate. They’ll be running in
front of a noisy crowd for the
first time since the pandemic
forced tracks to close to the
public last year.
BY JOHN WAWROW
AP Hockey Writer
Tyler Tumminia is leaving
the door open should mem-
bers of the Professional Wom-
en’s Hockey Players’ Associa-
tion ever want to reach out to
the National Women’s Hockey
League in a bid to thaw what
has been a chilly relationship.
The NWHL’s first-year com-
missioner said she is willing to
listen, and doesn’t believe the
two sides’ objectives in grow-
ing the sport are all that dif-
ferent.
“I don’t think the door’s ever
been closed here,” Tumminia
told The Associated Press
this week in announcing the
NWHL’s decision to double its
salary cap to $300,000 for each
of its six teams entering its sev-
enth season.
“I’m always going to think
about the future, and salary cap
increases and ownership com-
ing in and infusing cash dollars
that were needed in order to
show growth and progress,” she
added. “It’s all along the same
lines the PWHPA is looking
for as well.”
The PWHPA was formed
two years ago in large part
because a majority of North
America’s top players balked at
joining the U.S.-based NWHL
following the demise of the
Canadian Women’s Hockey
League.
Skeptical of the NWHL’s
economic model, especially
after the league slashed sal-
aries nearly in half a month
into its second season in 2016,
the PWHPA members instead
sought a fresh start. Their
objective was to form a new
league — preferably with the
NHL’s backing — and featur-
ing a sustainable economic
model in which players would
be fairly compensated in wages
and benefits.
Whether the NWHL’s boost
in pay is enough to begin a
conversation is uncertain.
Matt Slocum/AP file
Goalie Shannon Szabados (1), of Canada, plays the flying puck during
the 2018 Winter Olympics gold medal game against the United States
in Gangneung, South Korea. Szabados, a PWHPA member, remains
skeptical of the NWHL’s recently revamped financial model.
PWHPA executive Jayna
Hefford favorably greeted the
development.
“It’s great to see that the
league is making positive steps
towards supporting their ath-
letes better financially,” Hefford
wrote in a text to AP. “That is
the direction this game and its
players — now and future —
deserve.”
PWHPA member and for-
mer Canadian national team
goalie Shannon Szabados was
skeptical.
“Until I see a league in North
America that I would want my
daughter to play in, my stance
with the PWHPA remains
united to create a better oppor-
tunity for future generations,”
Szabados wrote in a text.
The NWHL is now operat-
ing under a revamped execu-
tive structure under Tumminia
and a newly established board
of governors, with league
founder Dani Rylan Kearney
out of the picture.
Rylan Kearney stepped down
as commissioner last fall and
has since resigned her role
overseeing the NWHL’s four
teams controlled by W Hockey
Partners: The New Jersey-based
Metropolitan Riveters, Con-
necticut Whale, Minnesota
Whitecaps and Buffalo Beauts.
The PWHPA has spent the
past two years holding a se-
ries of barn-storming weekend
tours across the North Amer-
ica, many of them backed by
NHL franchises.
The PWHPA features five
hub cities (two in the United
States and three in Canada)
where players have access to
practice rinks and facilities
and is backed by sponsors in-
cluding Secret, Budweiser and
Adidas.
The NWHL cites ma-
jor marketing agreements
it reached over the past two
years, including one with Dis-
cover, that provided enough
cost certainty to increase the
salary cap even though the
league has yet to reach profit-
ability.
The test for both should
come this year, with national
team members preparing for
the 2022 Beijing Games. The
PWHPA’s non-national team
members could consider the
NWHL.
Charlie Riedel/AP
Kentucky Derby entrant Essential Quality works out at Churchill
Downs on Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky. The 147th running of the
Kentucky Derby is scheduled for Saturday.
COVID-19
Continued from B1
Because Washington
County is at high risk, the
Hops can host about 825 fans
(15% capacity) at Ron Tonkin
Field. The Vancouver Cana-
dians, a High-A affiliate of
Besides Essential Quality,
the other undefeated horses
in the field are 5-1 Rock Your
World and 50-1 Helium, both
3-0. Rock Your World won his
first two starts on turf before
switching to dirt and winning
the Santa Anita Derby.
Two-time Derby-winning
trainer Doug O’Neill goes
for another with 8-1 shot
Hot Rod Charlie, a colt co-
owned by his nephew Patrick
O’Neill and four of his former
Brown University football
teammates. “It’s going to be
the race of a lifetime for these
guys,” Doug O’Neill said.
For all its tradition, this
year’s Derby is one of firsts:
• It’s the first to be run
without Lasix. Previously
allowed on race day, the an-
ti-bleeding medication has
been banned by Churchill
Downs and the other Triple
Crown tracks.
• Brad Cox attempts to be-
come the first Louisville-born
trainer to win. Besides sad-
dling Essential Quality, he has
15-1 shot Mandaloun, whose
Juddmonte Farms owner
Saudi Prince Khalid bin Ab-
dullah died in January. Cox
says a victory would make
him “a pretty good ‘Jeopardy!’
question that nobody will an-
swer.”
• Kendrick Carmouche,
aboard Bourbonic, could be
the first Black jockey to win
in 119 years. The Derby was
won by Black riders in 15 of
its first 28 editions.
• Vicki Oliver saddles 50-1
shot Hidden Stash in a bid
to become the first female
trainer to win. Shelley Riley
finished second with Casual
Lies in 1992.
• Baffert, tied with Ben
Jones for the most Derby
wins at six, goes for a record
seventh with Medina Spirit,
a 15-1 shot, after his other
hopefuls were derailed along
the Derby trail. “I’m com-
ing in there quiet, but I need
luck,” he said.
• Mike Smith, aboard
20-1 shot Midnight Bourbon,
would be the oldest jockey to
win at age 55.
Saturday’s forecast calls for
sunshine, low humidity and a
high of 75 degrees Fahrenheit .
Post time is 3:57 p.m. PDT.
the Toronto Blue Jays, also
will be playing their home
games in Hillsboro this sea-
son, starting May 11, and
their games will be subject to
the same capacity limits as
the Hops’ games.
High school sports: Base-
ball, softball, track and field,
golf and tennis competitions
can continue in extreme-risk
counties, but with a maxi-
mum of 100 participants and
100 spectators.
Youth sports: Outdoor
youth sports can continue in
extreme-risk counties, but
with a cap of 100 spectators.
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