Through The Binocs

Drawing Away Stables’ Saginaw took charge on the far turn and drew away to win the $90,000, Carr Heaven Stakes for New York-breds by three lengths over Johannesburg Smile. Claimed for $30,000 on March 8, this was the third victory in as many starts since being claimed by trainer David Jacobson. It was also the third consecutive victory of the day for Drawing Away Stables and Jacobson, having won the second race with Alarmist and the third with Charlestonian. It was also the third winner of the day for jockey David Cohen, who won the first race with Readytodefer and the second race.

SEVENTH RACE: While favoritism in the race at post time belonged to Debase the Dollar, the second choice at 3-1 was the well bred first-time starter Antonia Autumn. A half sister to multiple Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti, she is also trained by Christophe Clement and was being ridden by Gio Ponti’s regular jock Ramon Dominguez. She rated off the pace for most of the race but when turning for home, without much urging, Antonia Autumn just exploded and split horses to gain the lead and easily hold off Debase the Dollar for the victory. She definitely has a bright future ahead of her.

TENTH RACE: Chubbalita’s Joy missed the break and spotted the field a few lengths. Then newly arrived apprentice Armando Ayuso rushed the John Quiles trainee into the middle of the field but then got himself into a jam alongside favored Dita. She then stumbled and sent Ayuso face first into the turf course. Chubbalita’s Story was then running loose in the field and Dominguez aboard Rennina noticed the loose horse on the far turn. Turning for home, Dominguez reached over to attempt to grab Chubbalita’s Story’s reins and try to control the loose horse from causing any traffic trouble with the rest of the field during the race. Meanwhile, Rough Winter, with Ariel Smith picking up the mount for C.C. Lopez, was able to catch Believe in Betty right before the wire to gain the victory.

PICK SIX

Winning numbers:

5-3-8-12-2-10

No winners

Cons. (4of6) paid $1,094

Carryover: $31,882.85

David Jacobson, Ramon Dominguez, Johannesburg Smile, consecutive victory, Antonia Autumn, Christophe Clement, Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti, David Cohen, Carr Heaven Stakes, Armando Ayuso, John Quiles

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Fans show our culture is in tank

Phil Mushnick

From Philly to L.A., our sports “culture” was on full review this week.

The Flyers were three goals up and minutes away from eliminating the Penguins last Sunday when, instead of a congratulatory chant of something like, “Let’s go Flyers,” the crowd chanted an obscenity toward Sidney Crosby.

In L.A., after the Artist Formerly Known As Ron Artest assaulted the Thunder’s James Harden with an atomic elbow, Artest, ejected, was cheered as he headed to the locker room — and to his third suspension of seven or more games.

Still, pandering to the bad acts is a specialty of modern society. Last May, days after the NBA bestowed an award for citizenship on Artest — apparently not being fined or suspended for a few minutes is deserving of a lollipop — he was suspended for a playoff game for clotheslining the Mavericks’ J.J. Barea.

Getty Images

PEACE MAKER? Fans cheer Lakers star Metta World Peace, formerly known as Ron Artest, after he was ejected, and later suspended seven games, after throwing an elbow to the head of Oklahoma City’s James Harden.

Hey, remember what those champs at Nike chose as its Olympic ad campaign: “You don’t win silver, you lose gold.”

More: Seeing how Fordham University has become noted for future sportscasters and newscasters, the school asked two professors to check in on ESPN Radio’s move to KISS 98.7 FM, which included R&B music.

Dr. Paul Levinson, professor of communications and media studies:

“The purchase [actually, the rental] of KISS by ESPN is indicative of the general shift of music listening from radio to the Web, which has been going on for more than a decade, but is still accelerating with iPhones and iPads as music-listening devices. Sports on the other hand, still has a powerful voice via radio.”

Dr. Mark Naison, professor of African-American studies, sees it far differently: “By contrast, I would say the generation of black people who listen to KISS-FM are dying off rapidly as a result of stress-induced illnesses that result from living in a racist (but post-racial) society.”

Really? Geez.

No mention from Dr. Naison, however, that this sustaining racism will allow ESPN 1050-AM to become New York’s first Spanish-language sports station.

And more: Good chat Wednesday between Howie Rose and Josh Lewin during Mets-Marlins on WFAN.

Rose noted that Marlin Logan Morrison was wearing No. 5, originally retired by the Marlins as a memorial to Carl Barger, the first president of the team who died suddenly few months before the Marlins played their first game in 1993.

The No. 5 was chosen, said Rose, because Joe DiMaggio had been Barger’s favorite. Unretiring that number, Rose said, “Rubs me the wrong way.”

Lewin agreed, saying it reminded him of when the Padres renamed Jack Murphy Stadium Qualcomm Stadium. Murphy, the brother of the late Mets broadcaster Bob Murphy, was a San Diego columnist who worked to have a big league team in town.

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Ron Artest, James Harden, ESPN, Howie Rose, Flyers

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Twisted logic on economy

John Crudele

Dear John...THE ANSWER MAN

Dear John: I am not a Bernanke or Obama supporter. But something good could come out of driving down the long-term Treasury interest rates without printing money.

Most mortgages and many loans are based on the long-term Treasury rates. It could mean a big difference to people looking to buy a new home or to people looking to keep the one they have, if they can refinance in this disastrous job market. Just a thought. F.M.

Dear F.M. You are referring to the most recent brain freeze of the Federal Reserve, which was called Operation Twist, or just plain Twist, or Twizzler or something like that.

The Fed sold short-term government securities and used the proceeds to buy long-term bonds. The idea was to make long-term rates lower and allow short rates to rise.

Mortgage rates are already near 4 percent on a 30-year loan. Could another 0.25 percentage points or so matter?

Sure, some people might be inspired to buy a house if Operation Twist sent mortgage rates lower. But the real-estate market isn’t going anywhere until jobs are created and people feel more secure about taking on 30 years of debt.

Mortgage rates are already super-attractive.

On the negative side, there are investors who count on the slightly higher yields they receive on long-term — rather than short-term — government bonds. So you help the people who might use the lower rate to buy a house, and you hurt savers — again.

You also mention “without printing money.” You are referring to the Fed’s Quantitative Easing (QE) programs.

I think that just about anything is better than the QE programs.

Dear John: I read elsewhere that if you factor out the Birth/Death Model calculation from the last employment report, the actual count of new jobs in March would have been only 30,000, not the 120,000 the Labor Department reported.

Could you please comment? J.P.

Dear J.P. Elsewhere is wrong.

As all my readers know already, the Birth/Death Model is an estimate of jobs being created by newly formed companies, which the government assumes — but can’t prove — exist. Because they are new, the Labor Department can’t phone them for its monthly survey.

So the computers say a certain number of new companies should be forming in a springtime economy, and the Labor Department goes with the guess.

Yes, the government reported 120,000 new jobs in March. And, yes, the Birth/Death Model added a 90,000 estimate to the count.

So “elsewhere” thinks you simply subtract that 90,000 from the seasonally adjusted 120,000 and get the real job growth of 30,000.

That’s not how it works.

The 90,000 guesstimate is actually added to the unadjusted figure, which showed growth of 811,000 jobs in March. So the Birth/Death calculation last month wasn’t nearly as big a percentage of the total gain as some people think.

But that doesn’t mean that the Birth/Death Model should be ignored. In fact, over the next few months the guesstimates should be around 172,000 for April, 211,000 for May and 141,000 for June. Those are the numbers used last year for those months.

So the Birth/Death Model could influence the headline seasonally adjusted figure that we all watch and to which the financial markets react.

Send your questions to Dear John, The NY Post, 1211 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY, 10036, or john.crudele@nypost.com.

Treasury rates, mortgage rates, Labor Department, Dear John, Model calculation, government bonds, government securities, 1211 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY, 10036

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CHSAA/Private baseball roundup: Regis comes back against DiLeo, Xavier

Mike Comiskey came up huge in relief and Regis defeated one of the city’s top pitchers.

Down four runs in the fourth to St. John’s-bound ace Nick DiLeo of Xavier, Regis mounted a furious comeback, knocking off its rival, 8-5, in CHSAA Bronx/Manhattan ‘AA’ baseball Friday on Randall’s Island.

Comiskey gave up two earned runs on two hits and struck out four in 5-1/3 innings of relief to lead the Raiders (3-4). Julien Machuca had a triple and two walks and Mike Woods had two hits, three runs and four stolen bases. Peter Finch had a double and scored once and Cole Schietinger had three RBIs and two hits.

DiLeo, returning from two weeks off (dead arm), allowed six earned runs on eight hits, four walks and struck out nine for Xavier (3-4).

Moore Catholic 12, St. Peter’s 0: Justin Ortiz went 2-for-4 with four RBIs and a run scored and Shea Spitzbarth was 3-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored for Moore (6-1). John Baggs gave up one hit and struck out four in six innings. St. Peter’s is 0-6.

St. Francis Prep 10, Christ the King 2: Andrew Cunningham had three RBIs and three hits, Danny Pellegrino had two hits, including a home run, and Steve Pelan had two hits and an RBI for SFP (5-3). Dylan Lawrence gave up two runs on two hits with six strikeouts in a complete-game effort. CK is 1-9.

Holy Cross 10, St. Edmund Prep 6: Stephen Wolfring allowed one earned run and struck out six to lead Cross (5-4). Chris Moussa was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and Julian Bilodeau went 2-for-4 with a run scored. St. Edmund Prep is 1-8.

IVY PREP LEAGUE

Hackley 1, Dalton 0: Zach Kotin went the distance, struck out three, allowed five hits and walked one, Dexter Zimet doubled and Elijah Connell and Cal Barnett also had hits for Dalton (4-5, 3-5), which meets Riverdale Monday at 4:30 p.m. Hackley is now 5-6 overall and 3-5 in league.

ACIS

Staten Island Academy 5, St. Ann’s 2: Matt Smarsch struck out five and allowed five hits for the win, his brother Nick Smarsch had two RBIs, Alex Morisano had two hits and scored three runs and James Morisano added two hits for SIA (5-2, 3-2). St. Ann’s is now 4-3 and 4-1. The two teams meet again on Saturday.

NYCAL

Columbia Prep 7, Calhoun 2: Ben Acton struck out seven and allowed five hits and Dylan Richards had two hits for Columbia Prep (9-4, 5-1), which faces Browning Monday at 3:30 p.m.

OTHER SCORES

Xaverian 10, Bishop Ford 0

zbraziller@nypost.com

mraimondi@nypost.com

Peter Finch, St. Edmund Prep, Francis Prep, Mike Comiskey, Julien Machuca, Danny Pellegrino, Andrew Cunningham, Stephen Wolfring, Mike Woods, Cole Schietinger

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Sports Shorts

NFL: Loomis has clear conscience

Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said he’s “angry” about allegations that his Superdome booth was wired so he could eavesdrop on opposing coaches’ radio conversations. Loomis said he has a clear conscience and welcomes a joint investigation by Louisiana state police and the FBI.

Loomis also said he understands Drew Brees’ next contract will be the most important one he has ever done and he pledges it will eventually get done. He said the Saints must find a balance between making the star quarterback happy and keeping the whole team competitive.

The Steelers agreed to a one-year deal with veteran backup quarterback Byron Leftwich, who missed all of last season with a broken left arm.

mlb: Crawford out for three months

Carl Crawford, diagnosed with a sprained ligament in his throwing elbow, is expected to miss three months, ESPN.com reported last night. The Red Sox released a statement saying the left fielder’s diagnosis was made by the Red Sox medical staff and confirmed by Dr. James Andrews. Crawford received a Platelet Rich Plasma injection and will be shut down from baseball activity “during the initial phase of his treatment.”

In Chicago, Kevin Youkilis hit a grand slam, Jarrod Saltalamacchia homered twice and the Red Sox roughed up Philip Humber, who was making his first start since pitching a perfect game on Saturday. in a 10-3 victory over the White Sox.

ncaa: Fine lands Israeli gig

Former Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine has been hired as a consultant by the Maccabi “Bazan” Haifa franchise of the Israeli Basketball Super League. He will be based in the U.S. and will consult on player personnel decisions.

Vincent Garrett, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound forward who spent the last two seasons at Lee College in Baytown, Texas, signed a letter of intent to play for Rutgers.

GOLF: Pair leads Watson by six

In Avondale, La., Ken Duke and Cameron Tringale topped the Zurich Classic leaderboard at 7-under 65, leaving defending champion Bubba Watson six strokes back in his first tournament since winning the Masters.

In Mobile, Ala., Jennifer Rosales finished with a 5-under 67 in the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic for a share of the first-round lead with Katie Futcher, Lindsey Wright and Caroline Hedwall.

ETC. Feds probe Floyd Landis

Cyclist Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for using PEDs, reportedly is being investigated by federal prosecutors for possible wire and mail fraud connected to a defense fund he set up to fight doping charges, according to several multiple reports.

Mickey Loomis, Red Sox, Byron Leftwich, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Kevin Youkilis, radio conversations, Louisiana state police, Israeli Basketball Super League, Philip Humber, Maccabi “Bazan” Haifa, Crawford, James Andrews, Bubba Watson

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Big Blue snags Va. Tech RB Wilson in first round

In the end, the last pick of the first round of the NFL Draft was “a pretty pick for us,’’ according to general manager Jerry Reese.

“Very easy,’’ echoed Marc Ross, the Giants director of college scouting.

Why not? The Giants won the Super Bowl based on a ferocious pass rush and a dynamic passing game, and left behind their usually productive running game. They made a move last night to rectify finishing last in the NFL in rushing, taking Virginia Tech running back David Wilson with the 32nd overall pick.

“He’s a terrific football player,’’ Reese said. “This guy loves to play football. He can do anything you want him to do. He’s a good piece to add to our running back stable.’’

Getty Images

WHAT A RUSH! The Giants selected Virginia Tech running back David Wilson with the 32nd pick in the first round of last night’s NFL Draft.

This was a marriage of need and value. The Giants released Brandon Jacobs — who averaged 150 rushing attempts the past two years — and the starting running back, Ahmad Bradshaw, has chronically bad feet that forced him to miss four games last season and prevented him from practicing for the majority of the season.

What was left on the roster — D.J. Ware, Da’Rel Scott and Andre Brown — did not inspire much confidence. Hence, the selection of Wilson, who came out of college after his junior year and last season ran for 1,709 yards and nine touchdowns to earn ACC Player of the Year honors.

“He’s the kind of a guy who will add very much to our present situation in terms of the big play-potential,’’ coach Tom Coughlin said. “He’s one of those guys who has the speed and the maneuverability to make the big play.’’

The Buccaneers traded up to No. 31 in order to take Boise State running back Doug Martin, most likely fearing the Giants would take him at No. 32. Reese, though, said Wilson was the Giants’ second-highest rated running back on the road, behind only Alabama’s Trent Richardson. Reese did take nearly all of the allotted 10 minutes to make the pick, though, willing to trade down for the right price.

“We wanted to stay on the clock and make sure nobody wanted to move up and give us a mother lode,’’ Reese said.

Coughlin said one of the reasons Wilson is an important addition is because of Bradshaw’s history of foot problems.

“You have to think of that,’’ Coughlin said. “If it becomes an issue again you have to have some outstanding, talented people to pick up the slack a little bit.’’

Wilson is not tall — he’s 5-9. But he is extremely fast — he ran a 4.41. He also is a kickoff returner and Reese called his balance “incredible.’’

He has had a problem with fumbles in his career — seven last year — because of what Coughlin described as “flamboyant all over the place stuff’’ but added “he just has to learn.’’

Wilson is the first running back taken by the Giants in the first round since 2000, when they took the Heisman Trophy winner, Ron Dayne.

Wilson this week posted a video on Youtube playfully calling out Jason Pierre-Paul, challenging him to a back-flip contest, calling himself “the best acrobat in the NFL.’’

Reese said Wilson is “wound tight’’ and Ross described him as “a live-wire, energetic, personable.’’

Wilson said he was thrilled to be coming to the Super Bowl champions.

“I’m a good team player,” he said. “In this league one running back can’t do it all. I look forward to working with those guys.’’

The Giants were happy with the direction the first round took, leaving several quality prospects on the board when it came time for their selection. They had their pick of tight end Coby Fleener, offensive lineman Cordy Glenn, receivers Rueben Randle and Stephen Hill, defensive lineman Jerel Worthy and linebacker Courtney Upshaw.

paul.schwartz@nypost.com

Exclusive Super Bowl merchandise featuring New York Post front pages

David Wilson, the Giants, The Giants, NFL Draft, NFL, Giants, Virginia Tech, Tom Coughlin, Reese

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Pepsi's first-quarter results top forecasts, revenue up 4%

PURCHASE, N.Y. -- PepsiCo reported Thursday that its first-quarter profit held flat at $1.13 billion, or 71 cents a share, compared to $1.14 billion, or 71 cents a share in the same period last year.

The company reported adjusted earnings of 69 cents a share, down from 74 cents in the year-ago period. Revenue at the firm increased four percent, to $12.43 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet Research expected PepsiCo to earn 66 cents a share, on revenue of $12.35 billion.

"Our first quarter results reflect the strength of our brands which allowed us to implement significant pricing actions," PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi said.

The company confirmed its 2012 outlook and said it expects to return more than $6 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the year.

PepsiCo shares ticked up in pre-market trade after the results.

PepsiCo, PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi, FactSet Research, company, online

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