Kentucky Derby

The racing gods obviously got their signals crossed, choosing to grace Pimlico with a glorious afternoon to enjoy the first jewel of the Triple Crown on Saturday while the 19 horses in the Kentucky Derby slogged through the mud at Churchill Downs. So the 5,749 race fans at Old Hilltop truly got the best of both worlds, kicking off the two-week run-up to the Preakness with a full card of live racing and the opportunity to place their bets and try to choose the horse that will come to Baltimore with hope still alive for horse racing's biggest prize.

Claude R. “Shug” McGaughey is a man who looks like the embodiment of the nickname that is all anybody calls him by. Short and unassuming, he said this week he made an effort to enjoy the run-up to the Kentucky Derby, a race he has, like any trainer, dreamed of winning. But the Hall of Famer knew, really, that there's only one way to truly enjoy the Kentucky Derby: win it. Running over a sloppy Churchill Downs track that left 19 contenders caked in mud, McGaughey's horse Orb found stable footing and a late lead in the 139th running of the Kentucky Derby today.

Stuart Janney III slipped into Churchill Downs virtually unnoticed Saturday afternoon, a few hours after landing in Lexington and driving to the track with his wife, two children and son-in-law. The northern Baltimore County resident, who had avoided the Kentucky Derby fanfare all week, soon found himself as the center of attention. Orb, owned by Janney and his cousin Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps, captured the 139th Kentucky Derby Saturday through the mud in 2:02.89 to win by 261/27 lengths.

First things first: Grantland has a terrific look-back at Hunter S. Thompson's "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved. " I always start the Derby primer with a link to this story -- and by always, I mean I also did it last year -- and this adds even more context to how the story came about. A very popular question I receive from fellow Baltimoreans upon my return to our fair city by the bay is: How does the Derby compare to Preakness? The answer I ended up giving usually went something like this: The Preakness debauchery seems to be compressed into one day and in one spot, the infield, where once upon a time people ran across the portable toilets for sport.

Late Thursday morning, trainer Kelly Breen spoke about his stable's lack of notoriety. "We call it flying under the radar," he said. "You guys might call it lack of respect. We're a small stable. We have some good horses. We've been to the Derby every other year. This is our third one. " On Friday, when his horse, Black Onyx, came up lame after a morning gallop, Breen announced that this would not, in fact, be his third Kentucky Derby. He scratched the winner of the Spiral -- which launched Animal Kingdom toward Derby glory in 2011 -- after X-rays revealed a non-displaced front chip in his front left ankle.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Mine That Bird spent the week tucked away in the Kentucky Derby Museum, not far from the track at Churchill Downs and the throngs wondering who will win the 139th run for the roses. The 2009 Derby winner seems to enjoy when fans stop in for a visit. A gelding who retired from racing in 2010, he appears at ease. And even as rail birds and once-a-year track goers alike fall for impressive looking favorites, Mine That Bird reminds them that their hunch is actually a guess.

Todd Pletcher 's 38-1 long shot Princess of Sylmar won the $1 million Kentucky Oaks on Friday, giving the trainer a chance to become the first since Ben Jones in 1952 to win the top race for 3-year-old fillies and the Kentucky Derby in the same year. Pletcher, who has five horses entered in the Derby, had four in the Oaks. Dreaming of Julia was the favorite but could not recover from a rowdy start to the race. "She got creamed coming out of [the gate] and it is hard to overcome that sort of thing," Pletcher said.

The new points system for qualifying horses for the Kentucky Derby appears to have served its purpose. The race is full of horses with the preferred pedigree and running style to handle the distance. While this has served to restore some purity to the race, it has also made the race tougher to handicap because many of the horses now excluded by the points system were easy toss-outs for handicappers. This field of 20 is very even. A case could be made for every one of them to win. Orb was made the morning-line favorite, in a bit of a surprise, over Verrazano, who many thought would be made the favorite after remaining perfect in the Wood Memorial.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Baltimore lawyer Frank Morgan helped swimmer Michael Phelps , then 16 years old, select Peter Carlisle as his agent. Phelps was years away from stardom, but Carlisle aggressively marketed his client, hoping to eventually elevate him beyond the confines of an Olympic sport that mattered to a broad audience only every four years. Earlier this year, Carlisle signed another client - at the suggestion of Morgan - and put her on the Phelps plan. He's already signed a deal for jockey Rosie Napravnik to endorse Snickers - an agreement proposed before Carlisle learned that the candy bar was named for a horse - and has another in the works that could be announced before Preakness.

Todd Pletcher knew there were rumors. When you're one of the winningest trainers in the game who just happens to condition a fifth of the Kentucky Derby field, there are going to be rumors about your horses. He hadn't heard specifics, like the one about Verrazano, the 4-1 second choice on the morning line, not eating this week. But he refuted it Thursday during a measured session with reporters outside of his barn. "All my horses are fine," he said. "People saw them train.