Horses

As Orb charged to the wire at Churchill Downs last weekend, he established his clear superiority to the other 18 thoroughbreds on horse racing's biggest stage, the Kentucky Derby. But compared to Derby champions of the past, Orb's time is less impressive - his 2:02.89 run doesn't rank among the top 10 in the race's history. It is slower than the times of many winners from the 1950s and 1960s, and well behind Secretariat's 1973 record. Blame the muddy track? Fair enough, but none of the past decade's Derby winners recorded a top 10 time either.

At first glance, nothing about the Woodlawn Vase -- the shiny silver trophy presented annually to the winner of the Preakness -- seems to embody the thrill of the race. Where in its delicate, ornate features are the galloping, straining horses? Where are the bulging muscles, flaring nostrils and glistening coats? Where are the hysterical crowds? At a glance, the trophy hints at little more than that triumphant Kodak moment in which the victor raises the cup for the crowds to cheer and the cameras to flash.

Nicole Stall boarded the first plane to Maryland she could catch when she heard of Benjamin Boniface's death last June. She was there to grieve the death of a boy she had known since his birth. But also to work. In the days after the 20-year-old's death in an early-morning car accident on the farm, she went to the barns where she had fallen in love with horses as a teenager. “I was completely out of it,” said William K. Boniface, known to most as Billy. “She just went out to the stallion barn, kept it running.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Shortly after 4 in the morning, D. Wayne Lukas was back to work at Pimlico.He had just won the Preakness the day before with Charismatic, achieving two-thirds of the Triple Crown. Yet he and his wife, Laura, a couple immersed in horses, had returned to the Pimlico stakes barn in the deep black of night.After the Preakness, they had collapsed into their room at the Cross Keys Inn and called room service. They ordered cheeseburgers and milkshakes.They drank no champagne. They did not celebrate with friends.

For Ottomar Herrmann, his traveling Lipizzaner stallion show is all about "the art of the horses." But the producer of a competing show calls Mr. Herrmann's group "a circus family" whose claims of historical significance are dubious.And a press officer at the Austrian Embassy in Washington says the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, home of the famous breed of white horses, won't have anything to do with either one of them.The only authentic Lipizzan shows are at the riding school in Austria, said Hedwig Sommer, the embassy press officer.

2 Pimlico barns get state OK This morning, the Maryland Jockey Club's blanket quarantine of the Pimlico Race Course stable area is to be lifted, barring any overnight setbacks, allowing most of the 500 horses there to return to racing. The general release came one day after the Maryland Department of Agriculture released its hold orders on two Pimlico barns that had been quarantined since equine herpes first appeared at the track in early January. Tests on all horses in Barn 5, where the virus was first suspected, and Barn 8, the isolation barn where horses that became sick with the disease were stabled, were negative.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The death of Spectacular Bid last week of an apparent heart attack at age 27 left two thoroughbreds who reside side by side as the greatest living racehorses. Cigar and John Henry, revered residents of the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, rank 1-2 among thoroughbreds still alive in accomplishment and, fortunately for fans, visitor accessibility. About 1 million people visit the 1,200-acre park each year, and at least 25 percent come expressly to see Cigar and John Henry, said Cathy Roby, manager of the Hall of Champions.

Once, a whip and the reins were the tools of his trade. Now, Ron Franklin wrestles with jackhammers and mortar mixers. He has traded his racing helmet for a hard hat, his colorful silks for dusty work clothes. Twenty-five years ago, Franklin, then 19, rode a high-octane horse named Spectacular Bid to victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. He and Grover "Bud" Delp made history at Churchill Downs, becoming the first jockey-trainer tandem to win the Derby in their maiden effort.

Last year's chase for the Triple Crown ended when trainer Doug O'Neill stepped to a microphone stand in a patch of fenced-in grass next to a barn near the Belmont Park track. Brushing back tears, he announced that a tendon injury would prevent I'll Have Another - the 12th horse to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown since Affirmed last completed the trifecta in 1978 - from going to post the next day. On Saturday, a full field of 20 is expected for the 139th running of the Kentucky Derby and to begin the quest anew.

Ever dreamed of owning a Kentucky Derby horse? Plenty of people have, but the buy-in price typically scares them off. Still, if you catch a horse at auction at the right time, and if you have the right eye to identify talent, you can do it without completely emptying your checkbook. Bloodhorse,com, a website that covers the horse racing industry as well as any publication out there, published a list this week showing all the prices the qualifiers for the Kentucky Derby field fetched at auction (at least those that were ever offered for public auction)