Crown

With nearly every eye at Pimlico fixated on either the uncatchable leader, Oxbow, or the Kentucky Derby winner and heavy betting favorite, Orb, Itsmyluckyday cruised under the radar to earn a little bit of redemption in Saturday's Preakness. After failing to challenge Orb on the muddy track at Churchill Downs two weeks ago and finishing near the back of the pack, Itsmyluckyday finished in second place in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. "We did run our race, but we just weren't lucky enough to win," trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. said.

After Kentucky Derby winner Orb finished in fourth place at the Preakness, we are on the longest drought ever for a Triple Crown winner ("Lukas kept prediction to himself: Oxbow," May 20). The last time a horse won a Triple Crown was Affirmed in 1978. Besides Affirmed, there 10 other horses who won the Triple Crown: Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), and Seattle Slew (1977)

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,...

The Class 4A-3A boys lacrosse championship between defending champion South River and Westminster was suspended Wednesday night due to lightning at UMBC. The game was slated to pick up where it left off on Thursday, with the South River leading, 8-7, and just over a minute remaining in the first half. The first sight of lightning prompted an automatic 30-minute delay. Just as the players returned to the field and play was expected to continue, lightning was again seen in the area, forcing the suspension.

Bob Baffert strode into the Preakness stakes barn Friday morning, shouting toward Orb's trainer Shug McGaughey loud enough so all could hear. "OK, Shug, I'm here to take away that media spotlight for you," he said. Baffert, indeed, is one of the few people in the sport who could have swiped some of the attention from McGaughey and his heavily favored colt this week . Baffert has won the Preakness five times, and on three occasions he's moved on to Belmont with a chance at the Triple Crown.

  "Things happen for a reason. " Potomac's Nana Meriwether, the reigning Miss USA, says that a lot. Especially when she talks about the road she followed to her title: two runner-up finishes at the Miss California pageant before being crowned Miss Maryland last year; another second-place finish, this time in June's Miss USA competition; then - finally - the Miss USA crown, but only after the woman who beat her, 20-year-old Olivia Culpo...

Senior guard Camontae Griffin (Dunbar) scored a tournament-record 51 points in leading St. Mary's (3-0) to its second consecutive Pride of Maryland title with an 89-77 triumph over Hood (2-1) at Goucher. Repeating as Most Valuable Player, Griffin set tournament records for most points in a tournament (78), most points in a game (51) and most points in a half (24), as well as establishing tournament records for most free throws made in a game (19) and most free throws attempted in a game (21)

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association has designated the Owl, Westminster High School's student newspaper, a Crown Award nominee.Crown Award nominees are newspapers receiving 940 or more points out of a possible 1,000. points. The Owl received 979 points for coverage, writing and editing, design, hands-on production and business.

On March 2, 2007, ROSALIE GLORIA (nee Spampinato) of Hampstead, MD; beloved wife of the late Earl Taylor Crown, Jr.; daughter of the late Salvatore Spampinato and Delicia Spampinato (nee Cellimi); beloved mother of Samuel "Buzz" Taylor Crown and wife LaVerne, Earl Taylor Crown, III and wife Joann, Alan Francis Crown and wife Vicki, Dr. Cynthia L. Crown and husband Dr. David Flaspohler and Lisa Crown Davidson and husband Michael. Also survived by seven grandchildren, four step-grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and seven step-great-grandchildren.

For consumers, it's clearly good news: Oil prices have fallen to a five-year low, and gasoline prices have dropped to the lowest point in seven years.But for Crown Central Petroleum Corp., a Baltimore-based gasoline refiner and marketer, the drop in oil and gasoline prices is anything but good news.The company, which hasn't shown an annual profit since 1990, said that it cut production at its largest refinery, in Pasadena, Texas, by 20 percent because of a severe decline in U.S. Gulf Coast refining margins.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Crown Central Petroleum Corp. said yesterday that it had completed the sale of $125 million of senior notes -- more than it originally planned -- as investors appeared to signal some optimism about the loss-plagued oil company.Demand for the high-yield bonds was so great that the Baltimore-based refiner and marketer increased the planned $100 million offering by 25 percent. The notes promised to pay buyers 10.875 percent a year over their 10-year life, but because they were sold at a slight discount, they will actually pay almost 10.92 percent.

The British monarchy is said to be in trouble because members of the royal family are reported to be unhappily married. Yet one looks at the British political spectrum for the republican party in vain. The Labor Party has always harbored a few politicians who wish to reduce or remove the monarchy in the name of equality, but this is a less active period for such agitation than most.Q. Who says the crown is in peril of being removed? A. The journalists who report that princes and princesses are unhappy.

D. Wayne Lukas, the Hall of Fame trainer, has started 37 horses in the Preakness. He expects to have three more - Will Take Charge, Oxbow and Titletown Five - go to the post Saturday for the 138th running of the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. Does Lukas like Pimlico? Indeed he does. "I do like it here. We've only missed two, maybe only one in the last 33 years," Lukas said as he waited to accompany one of his horses to the track Wednesday morning. Standing just outside the stakes barn, Lukas was outfitted in his usual jeans, chaps, boots and spurs and a 10-gallon hat. Waiting patiently nearby was his stable pony Diamond, a reminder that while Lukas may have revolutionized the sport of horse racing with some of his methods, he's still a throwback when it comes to others.

Horse racing fans talk about their sport not having a Triple Crown winner in nearly 35 years much the way baseball fans lament the fact that their favorite game has gone more than twice as long without a .400 hitter. Undoubtedly, in the days leading up to the 138th Preakness at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday, there will plenty of discussion about Orb's chances to repeat what he did at the Kentucky Derby and, if victorious in Baltimore, what he might do next month in New York at the Belmont Stakes.