Your browser does not support iframes
Afleet Alex and Scrappy T nearly collide in the Preakness. More: Hovdey's Top 10 Preakness moments.
Just out of curiosity, Ramon Dominguez, wonders what the statute of limitations is on the institutional memories surrounding his most dramatic, nearly tragic, experience in the Preakness Stakes. It’s been six years. Enough already?
Barry Irwin sometimes used to make the business of syndicating Thoroughbreds look easy. He and a partner would spot a racehorse with the potential to improve, buy the animal, sell shares to investors. They often won stakes races this way, and almost won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.
If there is a rule of thumb guiding the appreciation of the colts who compete in the Triple Crown each year it is this: Enjoy them while you can, because they won’t be around long.
The idea of the best of the classic colts going on to fruitful careers as 4-year-olds is as dead as the dodo. There are exceptions, thank goodness, including Curlin, Horse of the Year at both 3 and 4, and Skip Away, who could look back upon his 1996 Triple Crown experiences as a minor league prelude to his two-year reign as an older champion.
Many of Maryland’s political leaders, from Gov. Martin O’Malley to members of the state legislature, will be in attendance at Pimlico on Saturday, and they undoubtedly will be taking credit for actions that “saved” the Preakness Stakes and Thoroughbred racing in the state.
Animal Kingdom was a thoroughly deserving and admirable winner of the 137th Kentucky Derby, but the race was one of the most strangely run Triple Crown races in the modern era. The opening six furlongs in 1:13.40 were the slowest on a fast Derby track in 64 years. The race unfolded so slowly that Zenyatta could have been on the lead. Seriously.
Rosie Napravnik dug herself out from under last week’s Derby media avalanche and came up for air, exhausted and inspired, determined to go back for more.
“Absolutely,” she said. “I’ll be very disappointed if I’m not there every year. What an incredible experience.”
Say for a minute you’re Robby Albarado. You’re 37 and a top professional athlete with three kids and a foundation in your adopted hometown of Louisville dedicated to giving inner-city children educational opportunities.
As a Thoroughbred jockey you’ve won nearly 4,300 races, including a Preakness, a Breeders’ Cup Classic, and a Dubai World Cup. You’ve hooked into mounts such as Mineshaft, Curlin and Banshee Breeze. You’ve won the George Woolf Award, a testament to the respect you’ve earned from your riding peers. The only thing missing is a Kentucky Derby trophy.
Gentlemen, start your coffins.
That perfect line came originally from the late, great Los Angeles Times sports columnist Jim Murray, but was so appropriate that Charlie Leerhsen, the latter-day Murray and former executive editor of Sports Illustrated, borrowed it with attribution to start his exceptional new book, “Blood and Smoke.”
The book is the story of the Indianapolis 500 auto race, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this month.
Leading into the Kentucky Derby, NBC and the rest of the media promoted the stories of the trainer with the heart transplant, the female rider aspiring to win the race, the 70-year-old trainer and his 50-year-old son-in-law/jockey competing in thei
At the start of the year, people involved in Thoroughbred racing were speculating whether Uncle Mo would win the Kentucky Derby and go on to sweep the Triple Crown series. Three weeks ago they were asking if he would be fit and healthy enough to perform well in the Derby. This week they were wondering if he would even get to the starting gate. On Friday morning they got the disappointing answer: The colt is scratched from Saturday’s race.
