The consistent sprint stakes veteran Close It Out and the speedy stakes newcomer Wickersheim head the field for Saturday’s $55,000 Champali Stakes at Calder Casino & Race Course.
Right from the start, a horse trained by one not so over-the-hill Hall of Famer and ridden by another took control of the Preakness. The result: a huge upset and the end of any hopes for a Triple Crown attempt at the Belmont Stakes.
In a time when horses are babied, racing once a month, D. Wayne Lukas does it his way.
There are only two outcomes when it comes to Saturday's Preakness Stakes - either the Kentucky Derby winner Orb wins the race to set up a Triple Crown try in the Belmont Stakes in three weeks, or another horse pulls an upset and prevents a shot at history.
Long-shot Oxbow led wire-to-wire to take the 138th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course, preventing the possibility of a Triple Crown winner for a 35th consecutive year.
Early Saturday morning, Shug McGaughey was walking back and forth in front of the stakes barn at Pimlico.
Although no one really keeps track of such things, Gary Stevens had no problem making the assessment with complete conviction.
In front of one stage, a mother propped her young child on her shoulders while watching the country music group Florida Georgia Line.
Orb came up short in the Preakness, frustrating everyone who made the Kentucky Derby winner a 3-5 favorite - no one more than trainer Shug McGaughey.
Kentucky Derby winner Orb put in another gallop at Pimlico with one day to go before the 1 3/16-mile Preakness Stakes.
Odds-on favorite Last Gunfighter notched his sixth straight win by claiming Friday's $300,000 Pimlico Special at Pimlico Race Course. The 1 3/16-mile race was conducted at the same distance as Saturday's Preakness Stakes.
After being on this earth for 77 years, winning 13 Triple Crown races and totaling more than $100 million in purse money, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas has earned the right to sit in an office and let his assistants do the grunt work in the stables.
All eyes will be on Kentucky Derby winner Orb in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. The 3-year-old colt will take on eight challengers in the second leg of the Triple Crown. If he wins, Orb will attempt to become the first Triple Crown champion since Affirmed in 1978 at the Belmont Stakes on June 8. In the Preakness, Orb will be facing five horses he defeated in the Derby and three who did not run in the race.
Fiftyshadesofhay, ridden by Joel Rosario, rallied down the stretch to capture Friday's $500,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico Race Course. The 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-old fillies, sister event to the Preakness Stakes, was covered in a time of 1:52.73 on a fast track.
A Hall of Fame trainer and the winning jockey in the Kentucky Derby will join forces Friday in the Black-Eyed Susan, a Grade 2 race for 3-year-old fillies at Pimlico Race Course.
For a while there, it looked as if the Preakness was shaping up to be a runaway victory for Kentucky Derby winner Orb.
Palace Malice, the colt who set the blazing Kentucky Derby pace, is stabled at trainer Todd Pletcher's Belmont Park barn with future races undecided.
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