BALTIMORE - Trainer Doodnauth Shivmangal did not enter Guyana Star Dweej in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes due to the combination of a grabbed quarter and a spate of wet tracks in New York that prevented him from being able to work the horse.

“I don’t like to breeze over a sloppy track,” said Shivmangal, who told Pimlico officials that a grabbed quarter had not sufficiently healed.

Guyana Star Dweej, a maiden winner from nine starts who likely would have been the longest shot in the field, will likely be pointed to the Belmont Stakes, Shivmangal said.

BALTIMORE – Doug O’Neill said that before he came to Pimlico last week with Derby winner I’ll Have Another, he had been here only one time – and it was a very brief stay.

It was Preakness weekend 2003, when he sent Maria’s Mirage to run second in the The Very One Stakes. O’Neill flew in from California for the race, but didn’t stay to see it.

Premier Pegasus, a three-time stakes winner and Triple Crown contender in 2011, was euthanized Wednesday after suffering a severe leg injury at Santa Anita, owner-trainer Myung Kwon Cho confirmed.

Premier Pegasus won 4 of 5 starts and $293,400. Unraced since March 2011, Premier Pegasus was training for a comeback when the injury occurred. Cho said that Premier Pegasus was training aggressively Wednesday when he was hurt.

“It’s sad,” he said. “He was galloping, and the rider said that he couldn’t hold him.”

Rail Trip, the millionaire and four-time stakes winner, may make his 2012 debut in the $100,000 Los Angeles Handicap over six furlongs on May 28.

A 7-year-old gelding, Rail Trip has been in training with Ron Ellis since late winter. A winner of 8 of 17 starts and $1,116,790, Rail Trip was trained by Richard Dutrow Jr. in late 2010 and early 2011, going winless in five starts.

Prior to that, Rail Trip was trained by Ellis from the start of his career in late 2008 to the summer of 2010, a period highlighted by a win in the 2010 Hollywood Gold Cup.

Average all-sources wagering for the 2011-12 meet at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla., declined 10.9 percent compared with the meet held a year earlier, according to figures provided by the track.

The average for the 92-day meet was $4.15 million, down from $4.76 million in the 90-day meet held a year earlier. This year, field size at Tampa was down from 9.11 to 8.54, and the track’s signal was not available on Television Games Network, a leading horse racing broadcaster.

BALTIMORE – Pimlico fans won’t have to while away Saturday just waiting for the Preakness to roll around. A terrific undercard precedes the second jewel of the Triple Crown, with a deep 111th running of the Grade 2, $300,000 Dixie Stakes serving as the traditional lead-in race.

Casino Host, winner of the Grade 2 Mervin Muniz at Fair Grounds last out, heads a Dixie field that also includes Smart Bid, Air Support, and Straight Story. A field of 11 older horses was entered in the 1 1/8-mile turf race.

AUBURN, Wash. – Trainer Roy Lumm will look to continue a hot start at Emerald Downs when he sends out two contenders on Friday’s seven-race card. Lumm has Justanother Bob in the second race and Wings of Pegasus in the featured sixth race, a $17,500 claimer for fillies and mares who have never won twice. First post is 6 p.m. Pacific.

Although it includes eight claiming races, four of those for maidens, the redeeming feature of Friday’s Belmont Park progam will be a $79,000 allowance pitting Group 1 winner Belo Acteon against six rivals, including the Marc Keller-owned entry of Eternal Ruler and Hailstone, the runner-up in the recent Grade 2 Pan American.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Rousing Sermon finished eighth in the Kentucky Derby on May 5, but could be back in the Triple Crown for the Belmont Stakes by the end of this weekend, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said.

Depending on how Rousing Sermon works at Betfair Hollywood Park on Friday, and the results of Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, the Belmont could be an option. Rousing Sermon races for breeders Larry and Marianne Williams and has won 2 of 10 starts and $404,000.

“We’ll see what kind of shape everyone is in,” Hollendorfer said of the rivals.

BALTIMORE – The primary focus is on the top finishers in the Kentucky Derby, and deservedly so, at least according to the Pimlico Race Course toteboard. But when the 137th Preakness is run Saturday, there is always the chance that a new face will emerge to upset the horses that became familiar to racing fans by running in the Derby.