Despite initial figures indicating that ratings for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes broadcast on NBC were down, the final viewership figures released Tuesday by the network showed instead that more viewers watched the television program this year than last year.
According to the network, the broadcast was watched by 8.8 million viewers, up 5 percent over last year’s viewership of 8.4 million. The viewership numbers are calculated by Nielsen, the ratings company that provides data to the networks.
Paddy O’Prado, who won the Grade 2 Dixie Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico, has been retired because of a fractured sesamoid bone in his right front ankle, his trainer, Dale Romans said Monday.
“He broke off the top part of his outside sesamoid,” Romans said on a teleconference.
Romans said the injury was detected after Paddy O’Prado was flown back to Churchill Downs on Sunday and X-rays were taken. Paddy O’Prado returned to Churchill Downs with Shackleford, who won the Preakness Stakes on Saturday for Romans.
BALTIMORE – Shackleford found the distance of the Kentucky Derby just a bit too far two weeks ago, but the wire came up just in time for him going a shorter distance Saturday in the 136th Preakness Stakes. Shackleford held off Animal Kingdom, the Kentucky Derby winner, to capture the second leg of the Triple Crown on a gorgeous afternoon at Pimlico Race Course.
Roman Chapa, who in 2007 was suspended five years by the New Mexico Racing Commission after being found to be in possession of an electrical device, has been approved for a conditional jockey’s license, said a commission official, India Hatch.
Chapa has 14 months of unserved time left on his initial suspension, and will be licensed on probation for the remainder of that term. Commissioners also ordered him to perform a form of community service, said Hatch. Chapa will be giving presentations on his case to the riders at each of the meets in New Mexico.
Dianne Carpenter, the only woman to saddle two starters in the Kentucky Derby, died earlier this month in Biloxi, Mississippi. She was 68.
Carpenter died on May 4 from cancer, according to trainer Garry Simms, who worked as an assistant for her before starting his own training career.
Carpenter’s two Derby starters came in the 1980’s when she was a regular at Churchill Downs: Biloxi Indian, who ran 12th behind Swale in the 1984 Derby, and Kingpost, who finished 14th to Winning Colors in the 1988 Derby.
BALTIMORE – The Factor, impressive winner of the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn in March, is sidelined with a hairline fracture of a hind ankle, trainer Bob Baffert confirmed Friday. The injury was detected last weekend in a nuclear bone scan done by Dr. Larry Bramlage at the Rood and Riddle Equine Clinic in Lexington, Ky., and has already begun to heal Baffert said.
Baffert said The Factor will soon ship from Churchill Downs to Southern California, where he will get an additional 30 days of rest before resuming training in late June.
For as long as there has been Triple Crown racing, the Daily Racing Form has been around to cover it. Here's a couple of our front pages commemorating some of the most memorable Preakness and Triple Crown champions, starting with Sir Barton in 1919 and War Admiral in 1937. See below for more Preakness historical front pages.
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The trainer of the third-place finisher in the Grade 1 Vinery Madison Stakes on April 14 at Keeneland Racecourse has filed an appeal of a complaint that the second-place finisher should not have been allowed to start, according to Kentucky racing officials.
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FAIR HILL, Md. - Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom had a spirited 1 5/8-mile gallop over the Tapeta suface at the Fair Hill training center Wednesday morning.
PREAKNESS STAKES 2011: Contender profiles, news updates, video and odds »
