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...

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.

As preparations begin on Old Hilltop for the 137th running of the Preakness Stakes, the star of the field already has a confirmed arrival date. Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another will show up Monday, much earlier than originally expected - and before most horses in recent years have begun their acclimation to Pimlico. Trainer Doug O'Neill, fresh off a long night of celebrating and on about three hours of sleep, said Sunday morning at Churchill Downs that he and the colt's connections had reversed their original decision to keep I'll Have Another at Churchill Downs this week.

Originally, trainer Doug O'Neill had planned to keep Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another at posh Churchill Downs. But during a long night of celebrating - O'Neill, predictably enough, copped to uttering the name of his horse many times to the bartender - the California trainer and the colt's connections decided otherwise. He will ship to Pimlico Monday and is expected to arrive around 5 p.m. to prepare for the Preakness, second leg of the Triple Crown. “We just figured getting over there and getting settled in would be a good idea,” O'Neill said this morning, at a mostly quiet track.

What a scene it would have been. Bodemeister, the 4-1 morning line favorite, seemed to run effortlessly around most of track at Churchill Downs on Saturday, opening a lead of four lengths coming out of the final turn. He would have been trainer Bob Baffert's fourth Kentucky Derby winner. He would have invoked reverential talk of horses gone by. He would have been the next one with a true shot at ending a Triple Crown drought that has lasted since 1978. But Bodemeister - whose name comes from a nickname for Baffert's son Bode - got tired.

It's hot - but not too hot - and humid - but not too humid - here as 150,000 people make their way toward Churchill Downs, where the 138 th running of the Kentucky Derby will take place at about 6:30 tonight. Hard rain fell overnight, leaving the track sloppy in the morning and preventing any of the Derby's 20 contestants from going to the track (it has since been upgraded all the way up to fast). Graham Motion, the Fair Hill trainer who won the Derby last year with Animal Kingdom, had told me he hoped to take Went the Day Well out there.