BALTIMORE - Funny Cide can't stand the heat, so trainer Barclay Tagg took him out of the race.
Tagg scratched Funny Cide from Friday's Grade 1, $500,000 Pimlico Special because of the extreme heat in Baltimore. At post time, the temperature was 86 degrees and the humidity was 46 percent.
BALTIMORE - Rafael Bejarano has come a long, long way from the impoverished streets of Peru. Not only does Bejarano have a huge lead in wins among all North American jockeys this year, but he will ride in his first Triple Crown race Saturday, when he climbs aboard longshot Sir Shackleton in the 129th running of the Preakness at Pimlico.
BALTIMORE - For those who believe there is little value to be had betting on the Preakness, may we suggest taking a hard look at Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Argent Dixie Handicap.
A field of 12 was entered for the Dixie, a nine-furlong race run on the turf. Wando, Canada's Triple Crown winner, is the morning-line favorite at 3-1, but he is stuck in the outside post.
BALTIMORE - Bill White looked around. He looked everywhere. The trainer's requirements were not unreasonable: a two-turn stakes race that wasn't part of the Triple Crown. That's all he wanted.
At this time of year, however, that cupboard is nearly bare, even in south Florida, which has an aggressive 3-year-old program the first four months of the year. With options preciously few, White decided to send his colt Humorously from his base at Calder Race Course to Pimlico for Saturday's $100,000 Sir Barton Stakes.
BALTIMORE - Figuring there is no better time than the present, Mark Frostad shipped Soaring Free to Pimlico this week to find out what kind of options they might have as the year unfolds.
An accomplished turf runner, will return to dirt for the first time in nearly a year when favored against nine other sprinters Saturday in the 18th running of the $200,000 Maryland Breeders' Cup.
BALTIMORE - Graham Motion cut his teeth in American racing by working for Jonathan Sheppard and Bernie Bond, two icons in Maryland racing. In the early 1990's, Motion started his own public stable, and it has been onward and upward since then.
Elliott Walden probably did his training brethren a favor Thursday morning when he decided to keep Ole Faunty in the Pimlico Special instead of scratching the gelding to run instead in the Grade 3 William Donald Schaefer Handicap on Saturday.
figured to be a longshot in the Grade 1 Pimlico Special but looked like the goods in the Schaefer, a 1 1/8-mile race with one-fifth the purse of the $500,000 Special. Walden said he cross-entered Ole Faunty in both races because "I was wanting to see what the weather was going to be like, and some other stuff."
Fourteen 3-year-olds were entered, but Saturday's $100,000 Woodlawn Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on turf looks like a two-horse race between New York shippers Timo and Artie Schiller.
, trained by Billy Badgett, has won three stakes races while the rest of the field combined has won two. Timo won the Grade 3 Transylvania at Keeneland on April 2 from just off the pace. He won the Mecke last November after being last early.
There are three stakes winners and three undefeated horses entered in Saturday's $100,000 Hirsch Jacobs Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters. But it is Teton Forest - who does not fall into either category - that looms the horse to beat in the six-furlong race. The Hirsch Jacobs drew a field of 11, though two horses, Wild Wildcat and Tiger, were entered to run in an allowance race at Belmont Park on Thursday.
ELMONT, N.Y. - In the 2003 Acorn, Final Round ran the best race of her career and Storm Flag Flying ran her worst. On Saturday at Belmont, Final Round and Storm Flag Flying will meet for the first time since the one-mile Acorn in the Grade 2 Shuvee Handicap.
Those two will face four others in the one-mile race.
finished third in the Acorn, beaten a length by the winner, Bird Town, who was later named champion 3-year-old filly. Lady Tak finished a head behind Bird Town.