SPORTS
By Chris Korman, The Baltimore Sun and By Chris Korman, The Baltimore Sun | May 18, 2013
Gary Stevens caught the water bottle tossed his way, took one swig and threw it back. “He don't want any?” a man asked, considering jockeys usually shower their horses, too. Stevens shook his head from his perch atop Oxbow, the wire-to-wire winner of the 138th Preakness. “Ain't even tired,” he said. Stevens, a 50-year-old grandfather who came out of a seven-year retirement at the beginning of the year, used a daring ride to clinch an anti-climatic second leg of the Triple Crown at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday.
SPORTS
By Childs Walker, The Baltimore Sun | May 18, 2013
For all of his laser focus on Saturday's Preakness, Claude "Shug" McGaughey couldn't help but dream ahead to the possibility of his colt, Orb, going for a Triple Crown at his home track of Belmont Park in New York. "I wouldn't be telling you the truth if I said I didn't think down the line a bit," McGaughey said. "I thought that if we could get it done today, going back to Belmont, we'd be comfortable there and we'd probably really have a big chance. " For McGaughey and Orb, the story ended the way it has for every other Triple Crown aspirant since 1978 - in defeat.
SPORTS
By Don Markus, The Baltimore Sun | May 18, 2013
He kept coming back, year after year, horse after horse, trying to get another victory in the Preakness Stakes before he was done. Going into the 138th running of the Triple Crown's middle leg, D. Wayne Lukas had tried eight times since Charismatic won at Pimlico Race Course in 1999 - with 12 different entries. The best any of his horses could do was third place - twice - with Proud Citizen in 2002 and Scrimshaw in 2003. But as the 77-year-old Hall of Fame trainer pointed out after 15-1 shot Oxbow took the lead nearly out of the gates and held off Itsmyluckyday by 1 ¾ lengths to give Lukas his sixth victory in the Preakness, even winning a record 14th Triple Crown race was not going to change his career plans.
SPORTS
By Chris Korman, The Baltimore Sun | May 17, 2013
Maryland Jockey Club senior vice president for communications Mike Gathagan credentialed more than 1,600 media members for the 138th Preakness. We talked to a few of them to get their take on how Saturday's race might end up. Not surprisingly, they went heavy on even-money favorite Orb, with a healthy dose of Mylute, the top challenger out of the Kentucky Derby ridden by former Maryland leading rider Rosie Napravnik. Jennie Rees, Louisville Courier-Journal 1. Orb 2. Departing 3. Itsmyluckyday Jerry Bossert, New York Daily News 1. Orb 2. Itsmyluckyday 3. Goldencents Tim Wilkin, Albany Times Union 1. Itsmyluckyday 2. Orb 3. Goldencents Gary Mihoces, USA Today 1. Mylute 2. Orb 3. Goldencents Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times 1. Goldencents 2. Orb 3. Mylute Claire Novak, Blood Horse 1. Orb 2. Departing 3. Mylute Gabby Gaudet, Maryland Jockey Club analyst in waiting 1. Orb 2. Mylute 3. Goldencents Richard Migliore, HRTV 1. Orb 2. Departing 3. Will Take Charge
SPORTS
By Childs Walker and Chris Korman and The Baltimore Sun | May 16, 2013
The colt was a knucklehead, really. He had speed and endurance in his pedigree, but if you had polled his owners and his trainer a year ago, none would have predicted that he'd gallop in the same steps as his great-grandsire, 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew. When the gates dropped on his first race, Orb did not even break. Second race? Same thing. He did not win until the fourth and final race of his two-year-old campaign. But where other colts might level off or become erratic, Orb seemed to get better every day. “I've never seen anything like it,” said his trainer, Claude “Shug” McGaughey, who has been in the thoroughbred game more than 40 years.
SPORTS
By Colleen Thomas and Chris Korman | May 15, 2013
Much like the nickname “Shug,” Claude R. McGaughey III's plans after college were a mystery to him. McGaughey, who trains Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness favorite Orb, was a student at the University of Mississippi's business school as the Vietnam War was going on and wasn't enjoying it - he was "piddling around," as he called it. Drawing a high draft number in the 1969 draft, McGaughey decided to leave school. The only way his parents would allow him to, though, was if he got a job. McGaughey reached out to a friend who owned several horses at Keeneland in Lexington for work.