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May. 18, Post Time: 10:45AM Entries and comments provided by the Maryland Jockey Club First - Purse $55,000, AOC $25,000-$20,000, 3 yo's & up, One And One Sixteenth Miles Post, Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Odds 1 Aussi Austin, Rosario, R.Rodriguez, 3-1 2 Bob's Gone Wild, Vargas, J.Lopez, 20-1 3 Jarrod's Commando, Karamanos, C.Garcia, 10-1 4 Warrensburg, Boyce, D.Barr, 20-1 5 Benny Or Local, Cruise, D.Kobiskie,...

Editor: I have always enjoyed [Matt Button's] photos but HAD TO take the time and tell you how very much I felt, actually felt, the photo of Phil Vellines dancing with his daughter in [Wednesday's] Pp&t . This might be the finest picture I've ever seen. You captured love on film. BRAVO Matt Button! Thank you for sharing your gift for all these years. Terrie Perry Street

Orchids to the Board of Overseers at the Baltimore School for the Arts for their decision to appoint Chris Ford as the new director! The appointment is certainly an honor for Dr. Ford and his family, but even more an honor for the school. A great musician in his own right, Dr. Ford could well have pursued a performance career, but instead chose to share his gift and love of music and the arts with the city's young people, ourselves included. In its relatively short history, the School for the Arts has been a beautiful success story on just about every level, not the least of which is its record of choosing the most outstanding individuals to serve as its directors.

Chick-fil-A has my deepest admiration for being honest enough to take a firm stand on their beliefs ("Banned in Boston? If the mayor has his way," July 27). It is indeed rare in this day and age to witness a corporate CEO express an opinion on so controversial an issue as gay marriage. He has demonstrated that he is a man of integrity and not fearful of the backlash. Chick-fil-A has excellent fast food products and a courteous, efficient staff. It is never easy to take a stand, especially when you are the leader of a popular business establishment.

Chick-fil-A has my deepest admiration for being honest enough to take a firm stand on their beliefs ("Banned in Boston? If the mayor has his way," July 27). It is indeed rare in this day and age to witness a corporate CEO express an opinion on so controversial an issue as gay marriage. He has demonstrated that he is a man of integrity and not fearful of the backlash. Chick-fil-A has excellent fast food products and a courteous, efficient staff. It is never easy to take a stand, especially when you are the leader of a popular business establishment.

NEW YORK -- Kerry Burke isn't your average reality television star. To begin with, the 43-year-old reporter with a heavy Dorchester, Mass., accent and rumpled white shirts doesn't resemble the glossy, striving characters that dominate most shows of the genre. The self-described "blue-collar boy" recoils at the thought of being on camera. He's not even planning on watching his television debut tonight on Tabloid Wars, Bravo's new "docu-series" about the inner workings of the New York Daily News.

If you subscribe to Bravo, your night of TV is all set. If not, the only program deserving of a hearty "bravo!" is tonight's freewheeling episode of "The Marshal."* "NBA All-Star Stay in School Celebration." (noon-1 p.m., WBAL-Channel 11,, BET, NIK, TNT) -- For the fifth straight year, broadcast and cable networks are providing a simultaneous special, showcasing potential role models from sports and show business, to stress -- through music, comedy and speeches -- the need for a proper education.

Baltimore-based Bravo Health Inc. will expand its Brewers Hill headquarters with room to grow by more than 200 jobs, company officials said Friday. The company now employs 570 people in the office and retail complex on O'Donnell Street in Southeast Baltimore, a redevelopment of two former breweries. Bravo signed a 10-year lease with owner Obrecht Commercial Real Estate for more than 117,000 square feet, said Wells Obrecht, president of Obrecht Commercial. That space includes the current headquarters and operations center in three buildings and 30,000 square feet in the Gunther Bottle Building, which now has stores such as Five Guys fronting Boston Street.

Television never knows when to stop. One of the universal laws of commercial TV is that networks and cable channels will squeeze more and more variations out of each and every successful concept until they come up with the only predictable result: absolute trash. I was never too keen on the idea of reality dating shows, but I have to admit ABC's The Bachelor was a ratings winner. Even Fox's Joe Millionaire deserves some grudging credit for the way it manipulated European fairy tales to its own sleazy ends.

I finally got caught up with Bravo's Top Chef, and my, what a lot of rule-breakers they've cast. The show definitely has a great mix of characters, all of whom seem pretty skilled in the kitchen, but it seems much more cut-throat this time around thanks to allegations of cheating and rule-benders. And now judge Tom Colicchio will be keeping an eye on them in the kitchen to make sure this doesn't happen anymore.

News Roundup •••• Former major league pitcher Curt Schilling's 38 Studios, which released “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning” in February, is in financial hot water with the state of Rhode Island. Taking cash from the state to move from Massachusetts seemed like a good idea when the company was projecting huge sales from its games. Instead, 38 Studios can't pay its employees or pay the state back. Yikes. [ The Boston Globe ] •••• Wired ran a gorgeous preview with lots of screens of the Unreal 4 Engine, which could be the backbone of next-gen console games.

Martyn Lawrence-Bullard left his home in England for Los Angeles 20 years ago, determined to be a movie star. The acting thing didn't exactly work out. But in one of those delightful turnabouts in life, he is now the interior designer to the stars. Ed Norton, the Osbournes, Cher and Kid Rock top an eclectic list of clients. Lawrence-Bullard has made the Architectural Digest and Elle Decor lists of top designers. He is a principal on Bravo TV's "Million Dollar Decorators. " He has a new book, "Live, Love & Decorate," with a foreword by client Elton John.

I'm pretty sure Greg Brady tried this, but maybe it was Parker Lewis. We just couldn't figure out why Cordish and Phillips were being so coy about their relationship - weren't they in love like everybody thought? It's their business, of course, and there any number of explanations for their public denials, including the possiblity that Cordish has always thought that Phillips was super stuck up and that Phillips wouldn't have moved into the Power Plant if it were the last place in the whole Inner Harbor!

Orchids to the Board of Overseers at the Baltimore School for the Arts for their decision to appoint Chris Ford as the new director! The appointment is certainly an honor for Dr. Ford and his family, but even more an honor for the school. A great musician in his own right, Dr. Ford could well have pursued a performance career, but instead chose to share his gift and love of music and the arts with the city's young people, ourselves included. In its relatively short history, the School for the Arts has been a beautiful success story on just about every level, not the least of which is its record of choosing the most outstanding individuals to serve as its directors.

It's been called the world's most extravagant art, and for good reason: The combination of lavish sets, virtuoso orchestral playing and world-class vocal talent that go into a grand opera production has never come cheap. It takes money to make opera magic, and the lack of it was the main reason for the abrupt demise of the old Baltimore Opera Company in late 2009, after years of struggling to make ends meet despite a string of artistic successes. In its final season, spiraling production costs and other expenses had reached the point where the board had no choice but to declare bankruptcy and liquidate the company's assets at auction.

Nashville-based HealthSpring Inc. said Tuesday it has finalized its planned $545 million cash acquisition of Bravo Health Inc., a Baltimore-based operator of Medicare Advantage health plans. The sale was funded by cash and debt through a revolving credit and new term loan facility, HealthSpring officials said. Jeffrey Folick, chairman and chief executive officer of Bravo Health since 2006, has joined HealthSpring's board of directors, the announcement said. HealthSpring owns and operates Medicare Advantage plans in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, D.C., and also offers a national stand-alone Medicare prescription drug plan.

Top Chef kicked off on Bravo last week, and tomorrow at 10, it moves to its regular time slot. The premise is that 15 people compete in a variety of cooking-related challenges to see who wins the titular title (as well as some prizes). It looks like they've gathered another cast of quirky characters, most of whom seem to have quite a lot of cooking skill (and ego, too). But so far the best improvement is the new host: Actress and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi replaces Katie Lee Joel, who was about as natural a host as one of those animatronic characters you might see at Disneyland.

Craig Perret had a grander scheme in mind yesterday when he took off Allen Paulson's Cleone in the Damascus Handicap at Pimlico Race Course and opted to ride Canadian champion 3-year-old Peteski in the $750,000 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs.Instead New Jersey-based jockey Joe Bravo substituted for Perret at Old Hilltop and won the $113,650 turf race.Even though Peteski finished third in Louisiana, Perret didn't fare too badly. His mount picked up $82,500 show money compared to the $68,190 Cleone earned for winning at Pimlico.

Bravo Health Inc., a fast-growing yet little-known Baltimore insurance company that operates Medicare Advantage health plans, will be acquired by Tennessee-based HealthSpring Inc. for $545 million, the two companies announced Friday. Privately held Bravo employs about 650 people at its Brewers Hill headquarters, ranking it No. 32 in terms of staff size among private city employers, based on a list compiled by Baltimore's economic development arm. "This is a good news-bad news story," said Richard Clinch, director of economic research at the University of Baltimore's Jacob France Institute.

(Reuters) Managed care company HealthSpring Inc said it agreed to acquire privately held, Baltimore-based Bravo Health Inc, an operator of Medicare plans, for $545 million to expand into the Philadelphia market. The deal, which is expected to close before the year-end, will add 45-55 cents to HealthSpring's 2011 earnings per share, the company said in a statement. Expenses related to the deal will impact 2010 earnings by about 20 cents, it added. The transaction will be financed through cash and debt under an amended revolving credit facility and new term loans, the company said.