Pimlico Race Course will again offer infield patrons at the Preakness Stakes a $20 beer mug that can be refilled unlimited times, the company said on Tuesday when announcing that infield tickets had gone on sale.

The $20 bottomless beer mug was first offered last year to reverse a 30-percent decline in attendance at the Preakness in 2009 after the track prohibited patrons from bringing their own beer into the infield for the first time. The bottomless mug offer worked: Attendance at the 2010 event jumped 23 percent to 95,760.

A huge winter storm bearing down on the Northeast prompted the cancellation of Wednesday’s live racing at Aqueduct by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, keeping a two-day pick-six carryover of $95,551 on ice.

It is the fourth cancellation of 2011, and the fifth at the inner-track meet.

New York Racing Association officials were to make a decision regarding simulcasting at Aqueduct and the Belmont Café on Wednesday morning.

 

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Seven of the 10 members of the starting lineup for Thursday’s $55,000 optional claiming and allowance feature at Gulfstream Park have graded stakes experience. But none of that group will be able to keep up with Doctor Peach if the improving colt can carry his speed a mile and three furlongs on the turf.

The Billy Morey-trained Positive Response, winner of the Gold Rush and the California Derby, had an easy 48.40-second half-mile work Sunday at Golden Gate as part of his preparation for the $200,000 El Camino Real Derby on Feb. 12.

“He just went an easy half-mile,” said Morey, who had regular rider Julien Couton aboard. “He remains sharp and is doing really good. He’ll have one more work, next Sunday, probably five-eighths of a mile. That work, obviously, will be very important.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – A massive storm that wiped out Wednesday’s card at Aqueduct may impact Thursday’s feature as well, because three of the eight fillies and mares in the $60,000 Sky Beauty overnight stakes are out-of-towners. The Sky Beauty is race 8, and the fifth leg of a pick-6 with a two-day carryover of $95,551.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The Super Bowl is taking over Dallas-Fort Worth this weekend, but for one Dallas couple the best sporting action is on the West Coast.

Ward and Roberta Williford cannot wait to get out of Big D this weekend. Sunday at Santa Anita, their Aggie Engineer seeks his fourth consecutive win in the $150,000 San Antonio Stakes, and the race’s importance could not be higher.

“We’re not going to miss any of his races for a while,” Ward Williford said last weekend. ”He’s a high priority for us.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – At 6, C Tizz Run is a little old to be making his fourth career start in Thursday’s seventh race at Santa Anita.

A gray gelding, C Tizz Run did not debut until last July, finishing second in a maiden race for statebreds. Following a four-month layoff, C Tizz Run won a maiden race at Hollywood Park in November and was fourth in an allowance race at Santa Anita last month.

ALBANY, Calif. – Jim’s No Preacher is off to a perfect start. A 3-year-old Minister’s Wild Cat colt, owned and bred by Robert Bone and Jim Robinson and trained by Steve Sherman, Jim’s No Preacher has won his first three career races.

He won a Dec. 12 maiden race at Golden Gate Fields, captured the first allowance condition in start No. 2 on Jan. 8, and won his third straight last Saturday in an allowance race at the same level.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After knocking off the first major jewel on the road to this year’s Florida Derby here Sunday with Dialed In’s victory in the Grade 3 Holy Bull, trainer Nick Zito will try to come right back and grab the most coveted prize for older horses to be given away here at Gulfstream Park this winter when he sends out Fly Down and Morning Line on Saturday in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap.

Fly Down and Morning Line are two of the seven or eight older horses expected when entries are drawn for the 1 1/8-mile Donn on Wednesday

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Grade 1, $1 million Woodbine Mile will be known as the Ricoh Woodbine Mile during a two-year sponshorship agreement announced by the Woodbine Entertainment Group on Monday.

Ricoh, an international technology company, had previously been a sponsor of Woodbine’s Highlander Stakes.

The Ricoh Woodbine Mile, a turf race for 3-year-olds and upward, will be run this year on Sept. 18.

Previous winners of the Woodbine Mile include Eclipse Award turf champion Leroidesanimaux and Canadian horses of the year Soaring Free and Quiet Resolve.