Keeneland

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- The Charles Town Races will present a simulcast of this afternoon's $125,000-added Lexington Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile test for 3-year-olds, as part of a full-card simulcast from Keeneland Park in Lexington, Ky.The Lexington, one of the final preps leading up to racing's Triple Crown, will be run as Keeneland's eighth race with post time for the first of nine races at 1 p.m.

HALLANDALE, Fla. -- Orchids, bagels and indecision.These components made up the post-race Florida Derby scene yesterday morning at Howie Tesher's barn at Gulfstream Park.The center of attention was the big roan colt, Bull Inthe Heather, surprise winner of the race and one of two legitimate Kentucky Derby contenders to emerge from the stakes on Saturday. The other is the fast-closing Wallenda, who finished third.The owners and trainers of runner-up Storm Tower are re-considering their plans and might opt to bypass the Derby and aim for the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 15.Bull Inthe Heather surveyed the scene outside Tesher's barn yesterday with one slightly swollen eye, received no doubt from the impact of a lot of mud being kicked into his face after his come-from-behind victory the previous afternoon.

LAUREL -- Look for a big chestnut horse with a white blaze to lead the field into the first turn on Saturday in the 41st running of the Budweiser International.His name is Zoman.He could be the best hope for a victory by a British-based runner in the $750,000 Grade I race since Karabas' success in 1969."He plays catch-me-if-you-can. If he comes away [from the gate] running on Saturday, then he has a good chance," said his English lad, Robert Latham, looking a bit bleary-eyed yesterday after a trans-Atlantic flight from London.

Simulcasts of out-of-state races are usually reserved for weekends at Maryland's thoroughbred tracks.But starting today, with the simulcast of the Elkhorn Stakes from Keeneland Race Course, Pimlico management will be bolstering its nine-race weekday cards -- at least for the next couple of weeks -- with more than a half dozen out-of-state stakes.More weekday simulcasting could be the wave of the future.Until now, state law has stipulated that only races worth $50,000, or more, could be simulcast at Pimlico and Laurel race courses.

Racing officials reported yesterday that prices were down nearly 11 percent in the final tally of the prestigious July sale of selected yearlings at Keeneland race course in Lexington, Ky.But they expressed relief that there had been no worse decline in a market that had already plunged 40 percent in the preceding five years.They also acknowledged again that the market was still being saved by heavy spending by investors from the Arab nations and Japan, who once more dominated the two days of auction sales that closed Tuesday night.