Clan-Members » Again in 1:09.28 and won by 2-1/4 lengt

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The third day of Olympic competition featured a couple of notable firsts: Rafaela Silva captured host Brazils initial gold medal of the Rio Games and fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad became the only American ever to compete in the Olympics wearing a hijab.The U.S. mens basketball team surged after a slow start, beating Venezuela 113-69 on Monday night and Serena Williams struggled before beating Frances Alize Cornet 7-6 (5), 6-2 in her bid for a second consecutive singles gold medal.Silva, who grew up on one of Rios hillside shanty towns, won judos 57-kilogram division, then, overwhelmed with emotion, performed the Brazilian version of the Green Bay Packers Lambeau Leap to celebrate with her compatriots Monday.It was, at the least, a momentary reprieve for the host country bracing for what once seemed unthinkable: an early exit by its mens soccer team from the Olympic tournament. Brazil finds itself needing a victory against Denmark to advance and avoid another huge embarrassment two years after a demoralizing 7-1 loss to Germany in the semifinals of the World Cup.Brazilian fans arent just booing their mens soccer team. After months of dire predictions from abroad about the mosquito-borne Zika virus, some locals are doing some stinging of their own: Theyre jeering U.S. athletes and taunting them over the fears that kept some competitors away from South Americas first Olympics.In the womens sabre tournament, Muhammad, sporting a plain black Muslim head scarf under a red, white and blue mask, was a winner in her opening bout before bowing out. A New Jersey native who started fencing in part because the uniform allowed her to adhere to the tenets of her faith, Muhammad also competes in the team event later this week.Australia won the first gold medal for rugby sevens at the Olympics, beating archrival New Zealand 24-17 in the womens final Monday night.A day after adding a record 19th gold medal to his collection, Michael Phelps is swimming the 200 meter butterfly semifinal Monday night and fellow American Katie Ledecky is swimming the womens 200 meter freestyle.Other highlights from Day 3 of the Rio Games:GOLF DEBUT : The first Olympic golf shot in 112 years will be hit by the lone Brazilian in the mens field. The International Golf Federation tapped into what few Olympic roots it has by selecting Adilson da Silva to be the first to tee off Thursday. Also in the opening threesome: Graham DeLaet of Canada, a country IGF President Peter Dawson called the defending champ -- George Lyon of Canada won the gold medal at the St. Louis Games in 1904.BRAZIL BLEAK : It has come to this for the Brazilian mens soccer team: The fans are so disappointed with the team that they heckled football icon Neymar and chanted the name of the women teams star during a lackluster, scoreless tie against Iraq over the weekend. Brazil is now facing elimination -- a prospect that once seemed unthinkable in the soccer-obsessed Olympic host country.BILES BROUHAHA : NBC announcer Al Trautwig says he regrets tweeting that the adoptive mother and father of U.S. gymnastics star Simone Biles were not her parents. Trautwig angered adoption advocates by refusing to refer to Ron and Nellie Biles as the 19-year-olds parents. Ron Biles, her maternal grandfather, and his wife Nellie adopted Simone 16 years ago. Trautwig said, to set the record straight, Ron and Nellie are Simones parents.SPECTACULAR SEAS : Sailing, not the dirty water, was finally the focus on troubled Guanabara Bay during a spectacular start to the Olympic regatta on Monday. Windsurfers sped across the waves toward Flamengo Beach in a fresh breeze, against the imposing backdrop of Sugarloaf Mountain. Robert Scheidt won the second race in the Laser class. Hes trying to become the first Olympic sailor and first Brazilian to win six Olympic medals.---AP Summer Games website: http://summergames.ap.org---Follow AP Sports Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton Arizona Diamondbacks Shirts .S. hockey team after paying his dues as an NHL general manager for more than three decades and giving up a lot of his free time to help USA Hockey. 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At sunset, we made love like sea otters. That was a pretty good day. Why couldnt I get that day over and over and over ? -- Bill Murray, Groundhog DayBecause you cant, thats why. Because it wouldnt be good for you, just like eating steak and chocolate cake for every meal wouldnt be good for you, or never being told no.So, no, Victor Espinoza, you may not have a day like last Saturday over and over and over again. You had it once, so count your blessings, and thank your lucky charms that everything came up green clovers and pink hearts.Six mounts, four wins, three of them in Grade 1 events, all three of them aboard horses who should figure big time in Breeders Cup races a month from now. Thats what I call dancing with the stars.California Chrome dominated in the $300,000 Awesome Again, and Stellar Wind certainly was no surprise when she beat Beholder on the square in the $300,000 Zenyatta. Gormley, on the other hand, was a fat 10-1 when he separated himself from the West Coast 2-year-olds in the $300,690 FrontRunner Stakes while leading from start to finish to beat the heavily favored Klimt.Gormley? Klimt? What is this, MOMA West or a horse race? Gustav Klimt everyone knows -- he painted with real gold! -- while the winner of the FrontRunner is named for the English artist Antony Gormley, whose imposing Angel of the North steel sculpture is the largest in England.Ive tried to buy something of Gormleys for years and never could get it done, said Jerry Moss, who owns the colt with his wife, Ann. Hes a tremendous guy, and its nice theres a horse like this named after him.Fittingly, the FrontRunner was an exercise in abstract expressionism from the start. Thats where the Doug ONeill-trained Secret House left the gate like a shot, but without Santiago Gonzalez, who had apparently begun to dismount just as the latch was sprung. Assistant trainer Leandro Mora, who at this time last year was recovering from a mild, stress-related stroke, was glad he took his meds.Before I saw the video and talked to the jock, I wanted to kill the starter, Mora said. The next day, I apologized to him.After Gonzalez debriefed him in their native Spanish, Mora got a clear enough picture to write off the incident as bad communication.The rider said the horse touched the doors, and once that happened, he thought the veterinarian would want to look at him, Mora said. But the rider never let the starter or the vet know he was getting off the horse, and jjust as he stepped off, the button was pushed.ddddddddddddA riderless horse is like a kid waving a loaded gun: Youre lucky if nothing terrible happens.In his first start after winning the 2012 Breeders Cup Classic, Fort Larned dropped Brian Hernandez at the start of the Gulfstream Park Handicap and led the field all the way around, then pulled up like a pro.In the 1967 Hollywood Gold Cup, OHara bolted into the guide rail while leaving the chute and dumped Milo Valenzuela, after which he pestered the favored Pretense just enough to give Native Diver an uncontested lead. OHara ended up finishing first, a length in front of Native Diver.The most poignant loose horse in racing history was Please Me, who went to the post at Santa Anita on a January afternoon in 1946 with George Woolf in the saddle. Woolf fell off on the first turn in a diabetic faint and was killed. Please Me continued on, as he was trained to do, and crossed the finish line first.Secret House was not quite so disciplined. Instead of rounding the first turn with the field, he bore out, taking the speedy Straight Fire with him. With the other speed horses eliminated, Gormley found himself on an unaccosted lead -- including three-quarters in 1:11.48 -- and took it from there, winning by three lengths.By contrast, the other Espinoza wins were played out with guns blazing from the start. Stellar Wind pressed Beholder through six furlongs of the 1-1/16-mile Zenyatta in 1:09.75 to win by a neck. California Chrome put a dead-game Dortmund away after six furlongs of the nine-furlong Awesome Again in 1:09.28 and won by 2-1/4 lengths, throttled down. Bob Baffert, Dortmunds trainer, had his own take.You were going easy, Baffert told Espinoza, describing California Chromes pace.Easy? Victor replied. In 1:09?Yeah, but you had nobody behind you, Baffert countered, referring to the distance theyd put on the rest of the field.Nobody? Espinoza said. I had Dortmund behind me!They were both right. California Chrome was going easily, in a fast 1:09, and kept going, the way horses like Ghostzapper, Cigar, and Precisionist discouraged opponents in the past.So, maybe Espinoza will turn the Breeders Cup into his own version of Groundhog Day after all. With Espinoza aboard, Gormley is 2 for 2, Stellar Wind has beaten Beholder twice in a row, and California Chrome has won his last six. It just keeps happening, over and over and over again. ' ' '