Derby

The last man to take a horse to Belmont with a chance to snag the elusive final gem in the Triple Crown has some advice for Doug O'Neill. Stay true to the horse. "I think trainers going around asking other people what they should do, looking for how to handle it, that's stupid," Rick Dutrow, trainer of Big Brown in 2008, said in a phone interview Sunday. "It's got to be about your horse. Whatever anybody else did doesn't matter. You know your horse. " O'Neill, trainer of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I'll Have Another, has already disregarded common wisdom over the past three weeks.

The Hereford Optimist Club will once again host "Kids All-American Fishing Derby" on May 26 at the ponds at Friendly Farm Restaurant in Upperco. Kids can fish from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. in waters that are only open for public fishing once a year. Children in middle school or younger are eligible to fish. There will be prizes in various age groups for largest fish and most number of fish caught. Door prizes will also be given out. Children must be accompanied by an adult and provide their own fishing equipment and bait.

All along, they had been so relaxed. So when it came time for Team O'Neill's horse to make his charge -- a historic one -- the colt moved forward almost nonchalantly. I'll Have Another glided past Bodemeister to win the 137th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course, setting up a chance at the first Triple Crown since 1978. The California-based horse is the 12th to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown since Affirmed edged Alydar in all three races.

Mike Smith appeared dazed in the moments after his horse, Bodemeister, was again beaten by Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another - this time by a neck in Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course . The veteran jockey wore the frozen smile of a man hardly able to fathom what had just transpired. "I swear I don't know how he ran me down, man," Smith said after trainer Bob Baffert approached in the fading sunlight. "You did a good job," the 59-year-old trainer told the 46-year-old jockey, a fellow Hall of Famer and former Preakness winner who recently passed 5,000 career victories.

Deputed Testamony is 32-years-old. His dark brown coat is shaggy, and his biggest excitement is going into his paddock at Bonita Farm for three or four hours of grazing each day. He is a pensioner, an icon. The oldest living winner of a Triple Crown race. But when Billy Boniface looks at the horse in his paddock, he sees the striking colt that was born and trained at the family farm and raced to victory in the 1983 Preakness - the last horse bred or trained in Maryland to do so. "Oh my gosh, I still get goose bumps when I look at him and remember that day," said Boniface, who was 18 then and had just taken over the breeding operation at the farm.

Mike Smith appeared dazed in the moments after his horse, Bodemeister, was again beaten by Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another - this time by a neck in Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course . The veteran jockey wore the frozen smile of a man hardly able to fathom what had just transpired. "I swear I don't know how he ran me down, man," Smith said after trainer Bob Baffert approached in the fading sunlight. "You did a good job," the 59-year-old trainer told the 46-year-old jockey, a fellow Hall of Famer and former Preakness winner who recently passed 5,000 career victories.

Historical trends at play in tomorrow's Kentucky Derby:1: No favorite has won the Derby since Spectacular Bid in 1979. The likely favorites will be the coupled betting entry of General Challenge and Excellent Meeting. If Excellent Meeting is scratched, Prime Timber may be the favorite.2: No 2-year-old champion (a horse becomes a "champion" by winning an Eclipse award) has won the Derby since Spectacular Bid in 1979. Answer Lively, last year's 2-year-old champion, is 50-1 in the morning line.

At the recent marathon baseball game against the dreaded Yankees, it seemed cruel to put Orioles fans through the torture of playing all those innings in the freezing cold ("Late-night letdown for O's," April 11). It appeared that most of the fans had not brought enough clothes to weather the extra innings. Why can't Major League Baseball get creative and come up with something that fans could look forward to when games go into extra innings - something that could wrap the game up early enough to accommodate those who must get up the next day to go to work or school?

On November 30, 2005, DONALD ALBERT DERBY, of Catonsville; devoted father of Michael Derby, of Black Mt., NC, Jonathan Derby, of Lancaster, PA. also survived by their mother, Ruth Derby; brother of Brian Derby; grandfather of Noah Derby. A Memorial Service will be held on Sunday 2 P.M. at the MACNABB FUNERAL HOME, 301 Frederick Road, Catonsville (at beltway exit 13), where the family will receive friends beginning at 1 P.M. Interment private. Please omit flowers. Those desiring may send memorials to the charity of your choice.

Trainer Billy Boniface yesterday ruled out any possibility of running Oliver's Twist, winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes, in the Kentucky Derby next week.But he is aiming the horse for the Preakness on May 20.The Derby was eliminated, Boniface said, because "of the track [at Churchill Downs]. There's not enough time to ship there and acclimate him to the surface."Oliver's Twist is one of about five 3-year-olds who are skipping the Derby, but could be Preakness-bound. Others include the Nick Zito-trained pair of Star Standard and Mr. Greeley; Mystery Storm, second choice in Saturday's Arkansas Derby, who finished fifth; and Houston Sunrise, winner of the San Pedro Stakes at Santa Anita Park on April 12.Each of Zito's colts has won a stakes at the current Keeneland, Ky., race meet.

Almost immediately, there was talk of lucky numbers. Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another drew the No. 9 post at the draw for the 137th running of the Preakness. After his horse raced from the 19th position -- and became the first to win from that spot -- in Kentucky, Doug O'Neill saw no problem. "Anything with a nine is fine for us," the gregarious trainer of I'll Have Another said. Bodemeister, meanwhile, drew the seventh spot. That, friends joked with trainer Bob Baffert, could work; his son Bode, after all, is 7 years old. But when the talk of good fortune and happy circumstance subsided, slivers of evidence revealing how the race will be run were left.

Doug O'Neill took a seat under a small awning, in front of cameras and reporters Wednesday morning. After a week and a half of passing time chatting with the few stragglers who came by his barn, it was time for the Kentucky Derby winning trainer to face the horde in town for Saturday's Preakness. He took questions on his record - he's had a history of horses breaking down, and has been charged four times with “milkshaking” a horse - and was asked again about how his colt, I'll Have Another, will do this time around against Bodemeister, the runner-up at Derby.

You would never know the Preakness Stakes is just four days away. At Pimlico's Barn D, current base of trainer Doug O'Neill and his team of assistants and workers, Tuesday was as light as could be. A couple of guys set off in the van, only to run out of gas not far from the track. They ended up having to push it to a nearby gas station. This came only after a long, spirited discussion about who had the keys. Other highlights of the morning included a visit from the team that cares for the Budweiser Clydesdales, and O'Neill admitting that he's not a big fan of steamed crabs.

I'll Have Another's path to the Triple Crown will be crowded. His competition at the Preakness, the second leg, could include the five horses who followed him across the line at the Kentucky Derby. That hasn't happened since 1958. In fact, the last time even the top five Derby finishers all raced in Baltimore was 1992. Bodemeister, the pacesetter and runner-up last Saturday, remains undecided. Trainer Bob Baffert - a five-time winner of the Preakness - is in California and does not plan to visit Bodemeister or Derby sixth-place finisher Liason until the weekend.

If you're looking for a great new alter ego, try joining Charm City Roller Girls. That's what Silver Spring native Lily Bradford did after frequently attending their events. "I had been living in Baltimore for a few years, and felt disengaged from the city," she said. "I decided to put myself outside my comfort zone and challenge myself to learning a new skill set late in life. " The Bolton Hill resident rolls on two local teams - during the home-team season, she's with the Mobtown Mods fighting for the Donaghy Cup, and right now she's hitting the road with Female Trouble.

What's left after all the bourbon is poured and money bet, after the hats are soaked through with the sweat of those elated by a validated hunch or devastated by  a sure thing who wouldn't go, after tension built over years and years is furiously unraveled by 100-pound jockeys riding 1,200-pound horses, after the track has been swept clean of the history-making hooves, is this: At Graham Motion's barn, the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner, was trying to...

If the Correction Factor has merit, there is no use putting any of your money on Thunder Gulch tomorrow in the Preakness.If the Correction Factor has merit, Timber Country will cross the finish line first.That, again, is if the Correction Factor has merit.Which it does, sort of.If you haven't heard of the Correction Factor, don't worry. I just made it up.Actually, I just gave it a name. It is a Triple Crown handicapping theory that has become increasingly popular in the '90s.With merit, sort of.The theory, basically, is that the best horse in the Kentucky Derby wins the Preakness.

Why is Doug O'Neill, trainer of Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another, not accompanying his horse to Baltimore today to begin preparation for the May 19 Preakness? Does he not know of our reputation for crab cakes? Has he not heard that the hottest team in baseball plays just a few miles from Pimlico? Is he offended that the drinking preference of race-day patrons swings so drastically from fine bourbon to even finer Boh for the second leg of the Triple Crown? O'Neill, a trainer who has the look and mannerisms of a high school football coach in his native Michigan, is back in California.

As Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another vanned out of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport with a police escort Monday afternoon, he was greeted by local horse fans trying to make him feel instantly at home. "People were lined up and chanting, 'I'd love another,'" said assistant trainer Jack Sisterson, who accompanied the horse on a flight from Louisville, Ky. "His ears are pricked and he's bobbing his head, 'Yeah, that's me!'" At Pimlico Race Course , cameras from local television stations were lined up along print media to record the arrival of the gorgeous, Doug O'Neill-trained chestnut as he came off the trailer and pranced to his stall.