It wasn’t supposed to be played for dark comedy. That’s just how it turned out. The NBC broadcast of the 140th Kentucky Derby featured a brief scene from the Churchill Downs jockeys’ room in which Barbara Borden, chief state steward of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, urged the 19 riders in the upcoming race to, among other things, “take care of yourselves, your fellow riders, and those magnificent horses you’re on.”
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DRF Past Performances
BALTIMORE – Linda Rice, who will make her Preakness debut Saturday with Federico Tesio Stakes winner Kid Cruz, will train for a new racing syndicate, Lady Sheila Stable Two, it was announced Wednesday.
The stable, which will be managed by Sheila Rosenblum, will “rely significantly on female investors,” according to a press release issued Wednesday. The minimum investment in the stable will be $100,000.
Ride On Curlin, the seventh-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, worked four furlongs in 50.18 seconds Wednesday over Pimlico’s main track, according to Daily Racing Form. Pimlico clockers caught Ride On Curlin in 49.60 seconds.
DRF timed Ride On Curlin in fractions of 12.98 seconds, 25.16, 37.54, and had him galloping out five furlongs in 1:04.18. Exercise rider Bryan Beccia was aboard for the move, which occurred shortly after the track reopened following the mid-morning renovation break.
BALTIMORE – Since winning the Kentucky Derby, Art Sherman has been interviewed by NBC, Fox, TVG, HRTV, and members of print media, including a publication for those of the Jewish faith that wanted to know how this nice Jewish boy came to train the winner of the Derby.
Yes, little Arthur Sherman, born in Brooklyn, raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, didn’t grow up to be a doctor or a lawyer. Instead, this son of a barber became a jockey, then a trainer, owing to his size, 5-foot-2. His younger brother, Jack, became a psychologist. Art Sherman gravitated to the racetrack.
BALTIMORE – Art Sherman, 77, became the oldest trainer to win the Kentucky Derby when California Chrome prevailed at Churchill Downs, but he won’t be able to claim the same honor for the Preakness if the colt wins here Saturday.
::2014 PREAKNESS STAKES: Latest news, video, and more
The legendary James E. “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons was two months shy of his 83rd birthday when he sent out his fourth and final Preakness winner, Bold Ruler, in 1957.
BALTIMORE – Ring Weekend was scheduled to be the last Preakness starter to arrive at Pimlico. He was to ship down Thursday morning from his base at Fair Hill in northern Maryland.
This is standard procedure for trainer Graham Motion, who prefers to keep his horses at the bucolic training center as long as possible.
Ring Weekend would have run in the Kentucky Derby had he not come down with a temperature the Sunday before the race.
::DRF Live: Reporting and insight from the Preakness draw 6-7 p.m. ET on Wednesday
BALTIMORE – Pimlico announced last week that for the first time, it will offer a two-day pick-three wager ending with the Preakness. The 50-cent-minimum bet links the Pimlico Special (the 12th of 13 races Friday) with the Dixie Stakes and Preakness on Saturday.
Pimlico also will continue to offer its long-standing two-day double ($1 minimum) combining the Pimlico Special and Preakness.
BALTIMORE – Late Monday afternoon, when California Chrome had arrived at Pimlico after shipping from Churchill Downs, assistant trainer Alan Sherman said the colt’s connections had not yet decided whether California Chrome would jog or gallop during his first training session in Baltimore.
Out on the racetrack Tuesday morning, California Chrome had an easy jog, and the decision to take a less-demanding path cleaved to the general approach trainer Art Sherman and his team are employing with the Derby winner.
Since 1933, the Preakness Stakes has been run without variation as the second jewel in the American Triple Crown. During that period, nine winners of the Kentucky Derby failed when asked to win the Preakness as well but then came right back to take the Belmont Stakes in New York, as if Maryland were nothing but a bad dream.
These nine won the Parenthetical Crown, the Triple with the Hole in the Middle, roundly greeted in the Belmont Park winner’s circle with polite applause and a melancholy sigh that said, “Where were you when we needed you back on Old Hilltop?”