Maryland Jockey Club

Purses are up, stakes and turf races are on the rise and more trainers and horses are coming to fill the stalls at the Bowie Training Center and Laurel Park, which opens its fall meet Wednesday. "Everybody is pretty excited," Maryland Jockey Club racing secretary Georganne Hale said. "Everything is looking so positive. The purses are so much bigger [having grown from a daily average of $180,000 last year to $240,000]. Other trainers are putting in applications for stalls. We've added stakes and raised their payoffs.

The Maryland Jockey Club unveiled a new logo Wednesday for Laurel Park Race Course. "The abstract horse represents the future of racing-respecting where we have been and looking forward to where we are going," Maryland Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas said. In addition to replacing the old logo, which the Maryland Jockey Club said was designed almost 20 years ago, they announced changes to the 2012 fall meeting at the racetrack. Two additional Maryland-bred stakes -- the Geisha Stakes (Nov.

A growing number of thoroughbreds are being groomed for new roles following their days on the race track, including assignments as fox hunters, riding horses, pets and show jumpers. Maryland thoroughbred trainer Rodney Jenkins points to the intelligence of a horse as one of the reasons why the animal is able to easily make the transition into the next stage of its life. "It's really a thrilling thing to watch a horse in action," Jenkins said. "They're beautiful animals. They're not dumb.

Secretariat's legend hardly needs bolstering. But, his supporters feel, the race he ran on the third Saturday in May at Pimlico back in 1973 does require revisiting. The Maryland Racing Commission agrees, and will consider a proposal to change Secretariat's Preakness time during its meeting next week. At issue is whether the colt had set a track record - as he had already done at the Kentucky Derby and would do at the Belmont. While hardcore racing fans have long felt that the strapping chestnut colt did, indeed, run the fastest Preakness to date, supporters - including owner Penny Chenery and Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas - are seeking to have the record officially changed as the 40th anniversary of his Triple Crown win nears.

In his recent commentary, "Too many Md. politicians have chalk on the shoes" (May 25), Douglas Schmidt gets points for originality for inventing a standard he can use to smear people who have committed no crime. However, he uses it mostly to smear innocent Democrats while not mentioning GOP officials who have done the same things. He neglected to mention that GOP candidate Ellen Sauerbrey not only maxed out donations from the Maryland Jockey Club to push for slots, but received donations from a scheme in which it traded contributions with a maxed-out contributor to New York Gov. George Pataki.

Baltimore Baby! I was so proud how the Maryland Jockey Club had fixed up Pimlico for the Preakness. Every building, every railing and sign - all were freshly painted with magnificent yellow flowers everywhere! Baltimore is first class! Jim Holechek, Baltimore

Two days after Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another's thrilling win over Bodemeister under sunny skies and in front of a packed house, Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas pronounced the 137th running of the Preakness a rousing success. "I couldn't be happier," he said Monday. "From the standpoint of attendance, we had 121,000. We wagered about $80 million. The best part of this is we had very few problems. ... I received more compliments today and yesterday from the public, many e-mails, many phone calls.

The jockey had raced an Arabian horse only once before and had never met the trainer before. The trainer, a former jockey himself, has never actually mounted an Arabian. The owner is an 18-year-old Shiek who, according to the trainer, knows very little about horses, even Arabians. Experience seemed to be insignificant when it comes to T M Fred Texas, the 5-year-old Arabian who followed a world championship in Dubai in March with a victory Saturday in the first President of United Emirates Cup at Pimlico Race Course . T M Texas paid $4.40.

The crowd as a whole is behaving surprisingly lucid and laidback, enjoying their neon yellow mugs full of beer. Anyone turned off by the debauchery of say, five years ago, might want to consider coming back. Then I spot the first public vomiting sighting of the day at 12:15 p.m. About 150 yards away from the main stage, a tall 20-something hunches over a white Maryland Jockey Club cardboard trashcan in the middle of the Infield. He has a T-shirt wrapped around his head.  He takes an extra 30 seconds by the can to collect himself.

There were still drunken 20-somethings. Still crowds making a ruckus. And people throwing up after one too many beers. But this year - unlike at recent Preakness Stakes when infield crowds gained a reputation for debauchery and rowdy stunts like port-a-potty races - racegoers said the party was less out of control. The infield drew both casual fans, who came just to hang out, and well-dressed and well-heeled racing patrons - the type you usually find in the VIP tents or grandstands.