BALTIMORE – The morning after winning the Kentucky Derby with Orb, trainer Shug McGaughey stood under the shed row of Barn 43 at Churchill Downs, reflecting on his first Derby win and what it would mean two weeks hence in the Preakness Stakes.
“I’m glad I’ve got the target on my back,” McGaughey said. “I’m very comfortable being in that position.”
BALTIMORE - Pimlico Race Course will have a deep and diverse wagering menu for its Friday and Saturday cards that are topped by the respective Black-Eyed Susan and Preakness. Advance wagering on the Preakness will open Friday.
[2013 PREAKNESS STAKES: Latest news, video, and more]
Other wagers for Friday include the new Pimlico Special-Preakness Double, linking the Friday and Saturday stakes in an offering that replaces the Black-Eyed Susan-Preakness Double. It is a $1 minimum bet.
BALTIMORE - Though they will both try to stop Orb’s Triple Crown bid in Saturday’s Preakness, fellow Hall of Fame trainers Bob Baffert and D. Wayne Lukas were more than happy to welcome Shug McGaughey to the fraternity of Kentucky Derby-winning trainers.
BALTIMORE – Orb beat 18 rivals when he won the Kentucky Derby on May 4, and he did it so convincingly that only five of those runners are trying again in the 138th Preakness Stakes on Saturday here at Pimlico, along with three newcomers to the Triple Crown trail. Eight challengers, it seems, is enough.
BALTIMORE – Will Horton will pretty much be running his entire stable at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday, when Will Take Charge starts in the Grade 1, $1 million Preakness Stakes and Laurie’s Rocket goes in the Grade 3, $150,000 Maryland Sprint Handicap. Together, the horses he owns have won a combined 5 of 11 starts this year, for earnings of $636,185. Among their wins have been three stakes races, including the Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel.
BALTIMORE – Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas will have plenty to keep him busy Saturday at Pimlico even before he saddles three horses in the 138th Preakness Stakes.
Lukas has five horses running in three undercard stakes, topped by the uncoupled entry of Optimizer and Skyring in the Grade 2, $300,000 Dixie Stakes.
[2013 PREAKNESS STAKES: Latest news, video, and more]
The Dixie, run at 1 1/8 miles, drew a bulky 13-horse field that lacks a standout.
BOSSIER CITY, La. – There is a hint of nostalgia in the air at Louisiana Downs. The track’s 40th season has produced a homecoming of sorts for veteran jockey Bobby Walker Jr. and agent Wendy Smith, two major players locally in the 1980s.
Walker was a perennial top-10 rider, while Smith represented several other top-shelf jockeys during the period. While both admittedly are in the twilight of their careers – they have spent more than 90 years between them at the racetrack – a common goal has brought the two together for one last fling.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Suggestive Boy, the top turf miler in Southern California over the winter, will resume training this week after being given a break for a splint bone injury, trainer Ron McAnally said.
Earlier this year, Suggestive Boy won the Grade 2 Arcadia Mile and Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf at Santa Anita, but was held out of the Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland in April after the splint bone injury was detected.
“He’s about ready to start back,” McAnally said Wednesday. “We X-rayed it, and they said it was all healed. It was a little crack. It was very minor.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jack Frost has a name of great renown, but not from his deeds as a horse trainer.
“My dad was one of 13 kids, all but two of them boys,” said Frost, who lived in and around Huntsville, Ala., for the first half of his 62-plus years. “Everyone always got tagged with some kind of nickname because of our last name. He figured I might as well be the one to make it stick.”
AUBURN, Wash. – Emerald Downs will begin its Friday card 30 minutes early this week, at 6:15 p.m. Pacific, to accommodate an eight-race program that includes the first two Quarter Horse races of the meeting. A field of six will sprint 350 yards in race 1, followed by a mixed group of Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds going 870 yards in race 2.
