Derby

Two horses whose connections had indicated to Pimlico officials they would run in the Preakness are now saying something else, but a Kentucky Derby runner has moved from a possible to a definite. Teuflesberg, who faded to 17th in the Derby on Saturday after challenging for the lead, is headed to Pimlico, trainer and co-owner Jamie Sanders said yesterday. "We think Pimlico is more suitable to his style," Sanders said. Lexington Stakes winner Slew's Tizzy has been dropped from consideration, according to trainer Greg Fox, instead opting for the Lone Star Derby.

The Andersen family's turtles are cold-blooded competitors. Speedy, a red-nosed slider, won the first heat by a red nose yesterday at the 66th annual Chesapeake Turtle Derby in Patterson Park. The next race went to the Bel Air family's other slider, Claude. "One of them always wins," Charlie Andersen said of the turtles. "It's almost embarrassing. We've got probably 10 trophies from turtle races at our house." Andersen, who attended the race with his wife, son and daughter, said the family has been competing in turtle derbies since they adopted Claude in 1998.

If Barbaro had been quickly put down after he shattered his leg in full view of a horrified Preakness crowd last May, the Kentucky Derby winner might now be just a sad footnote. If the gifted colt had continued to recover after heroic surgery put him back on four feet and grazing by mid-August, he might already have returned to his home stable in Pennsylvania - destined for a decade or two as a beloved pasture potato. With his death yesterday, though, Barbaro and his fans seem cruelly cheated.

The founder of the bankrupt investment firm Coleman Craten LLC emerged for the first time in federal bankruptcy court yesterday and said she has a plan to pay off creditors who are owed at least $5.9 million."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- He was one guy with one horse and some one-liners when he first came to the Kentucky Derby three years ago. Bob Baffert was an unknown, a little-guy trainer, as hard as that is to fathom now.Three years later, after losing the Derby by a nose in 1996 and winning it the past two years, he's Baffert Inc.He's stabled in Barn 33 at Churchill Downs with 15 stablehands, two assistants and 31 well-bred horses, including the past two Derby winners...

On the desert sands of Dubai, under the watchful eye of Sheik Mohammed, the 3-year-olds of Godolphin Racing Inc. will compete this weekend in what Arab horsemen call a trial race.The horses' performances at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates will shed light -- although probably not much -- on Godolphin's Kentucky Derby plans for Worldly Manner and its seven other 3-year-olds nominated to the Triple Crown.Although the eight horses were also nominated to the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland -- on April 10, three weeks before the Kentucky Derby -- Godolphin spokesmen have said they're prepared to send horses from Dubai directly to the Derby without an official prep race.

The inclement weather led to the scratches of three entries from the $50,000 Taking Risks Handicap at Timonium yesterday, including Perfect To A Tee, who might have ruled as the post-time favorite.Among those remaining, odds-on choice Eastover Faith controlled the pace just off a sloppy rail and romped to a 6 1/2-length victory over Mister Extreme."His last two have been real easy," said winning rider Mark Johnston, who completed his Timonium activity in style. "He didn't mind the off going."

Although Lemon Drop Kid won't run in the Preakness, look for him in the Belmont.Trainer Scotty Schulhofer and Maryland owners Jinny Vance and Laddie Dance say they haven't lost confidence in the colt. They just want to preserve him for races later this season."It's a long year," Schulhofer said from his barn at Belmont Park. "And he's a young horse."A May 26 foal, Lemon Drop Kid had a rough trip in the Blue Grass Stakes, finishing fifth, and an even rougher trip in the Kentucky Derby, finishing ninth.

Stellar Brush heads a field of 12 in the $250,000 West Virginia Derby tomorrow at Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort in Chester, W. Va. Post time is 10: 35 p.m.Trained by Richard W. Small at Pimlico, Stellar Brush is one of five Maryland horses entered in the 1 1/8-mile Derby, the richest horse race ever in West Virginia. Racing officials raised the purse with revenue from their slot machines.At yesterday's post-position draw, Stellar Brush drew No. 5 and was named the 9-5 favorite.

Preakness Crab Derby -- Local celebrities compete in a crab-racing contest, 12:30 p.m. at Lexington Market. Free. Call 410-685-6169.Great Schooner Race -- Tall ships including the Clipper City, Lady Maryland and Nighthawk race to and from Fort McHenry from the Inner Harbor. Best view is from the Inner Harbor promenade. 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Free.The Preakness Pub -- Professional jockeys from Pimlico tend bar for charityfrom 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. nightly (through Friday) at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel.

For five weeks each fall since Harry S. Truman was president, thousands of addicted anglers have lined shores and jetties and propped themselves up in boats, hoping to ease the craving of striper madness by taking part in the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. In his book "The Big One: An Island, An Obsession and the Furious Pursuit of a Great Fish" (Atlantic Monthly Press; $24.95), journalist David Kinney chronicles the 2007 competition, from the opening moments until the weigh station closed.

BELMONT, N.Y. -- Perhaps more than any horse in the field of the Belmont Stakes, it's almost impossible to predict what Dunkirk is going to do Saturday. When he was purchased for $3.7 million at auction, plenty of people expected big things from Dunkirk, including his trainer, Todd Pletcher. But it has been something of a roller-coaster ride since. The horse almost didn't make the Kentucky Derby field through graded earnings, then did get in and went off as the second choice at 5-1. The horse stumbled out of the gate and then got pinched between Pioneerof the Nile and Papa Clem at the halfway point and finished 19 lengths behind eventual winner Mine That Bird.

Jerry Hissam, Calvin Borel's close friend and longtime agent, was a little exasperated after the Preakness. Reporters were peppering him with questions about Borel, who had just won the second jewel of the 2009 Triple Crown, and he was trying to come up with a dignified way of saying what was on the tip of everyone's tongue: Isn't it about time the racing community figured out that Borel - even at age 42 - is one of the best jockeys in the sport?...

Three hours before the $500,000 Kentucky Oaks on May 1, Terry Finley faced an agonizing decision. His 3-year-old filly, Justwhistledixie, was scheduled to go off as second choice to favored Rachel Alexandra. But the filly had a problem. Not a soundness problem, but a tender foot, the result of new shoes. Feeling he had no choice, Finley decided to scratch. The president of West Point Thoroughbreds in Mount Laurel, N.J., wasn't going to risk the filly's future on one race, no matter how big. "It was a long road to get to the Kentucky Oaks," he said last week.

It has been well documented that it's unwise to change horses midstream, but Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Calvin Borel apparently didn't get the memo. Borel rode Mine That Bird to one of the most surprising victories in the history of horse racing, but he will jump over to super filly Rachel Alexandra for Saturday's Preakness Stakes as soon as she officially joins the field. What's that all about? Wouldn't it be a little like Cal Ripken Jr. deciding right before Sept. 6, 1995, that he would rather set the consecutive-games record in a New York Yankees uniform?

I normally choose my Derby pony based on which name comes closest to reminding me of an adult beverage. But these are not normal times. The horse that seems to be made for 2009 is I Want Revenge. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/toydept)

Baltimore N. Charles Street $25,000 reward offered by FBI in robbery attempt at bank The Baltimore office of the FBI is offering a reward of $25,000 for information leading to the identification, indictment and conviction of the men who attempted to rob a Loomis Armored employee Wednesday afternoon outside a bank in the 400 block of N. Charles St. FBI Agent Richard Wolf, spokesman for the Baltimore-Delaware offices of the bureau, said a Loomis employee...

There are many times when fishing with kids beats fishing with grown-ups. Sure, you might spend a great deal of time baiting hooks, wiping fish slime from tiny hands and dodging the occasional incoming bobber. On the other hand, you don't have to talk about gas prices and spineless politicians while scrambling to think of a compliment for fried chicken that tastes like it came in close contact with WD-40. For me, it's no contest. Yesterday morning, as the sun was turning the Chesapeake Bay into the world's largest bowl of steaming bouillabaisse, families willingly left the protection of the cooling woods of Downs Park to take part in the Pasadena Sportfishing Group's fishing derby.

Gayego, who had not finished worse than second in his five starts before the Kentucky Derby, will try to redeem a 17th-place finish to Big Brown two weeks ago by running in Saturday's Preakness. "He came back [from the Derby] very well," Gayego's trainer, Paulo Lobo, said. "He's been eating everything. He's feeling happy." On top of that, Lobo said, the son of Gilded Time is a good shipper, which is fortunate because this morning the California horse was boarding his fifth major flight in five weeks, having traveled to and from the Arkansas Derby in April and to and from the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago. Lobo's decision to bring Gayego here means this will be the sixth time since 1918 that just two Derby starters will have been entered in the Preakness after running at Churchill Downs.

Fluid is the best way to describe the field for the 133rd Preakness, as word came yesterday that El Gato Malo won't enter after all, and Riley Tucker, not previously in the picture, might run. Recapturetheglory, the fifth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby and possibly the only Derby entry who will advance to the Preakness for a rematch with Derby winner Big Brown, remains an uncertainty. Co-owner Ronald Lamarque told Pimlico Race Course officials yesterday that he and trainer and fellow co-owner Louie Roussel are "still thinking about the Preakness."