Maryland Racing Commission

Kent Desormeaux, who was taken off his mounts Friday at Belmont after failing a Breathalyzer test, will not ride Sagamore Farm's Tiger Walk in the Preakness. Sagamore manager Tom Mullikin said Ramon Dominguez will get the ride. "We just can't have that," Mullikin said Friday after watching Sagamore filly Millionreasonswhy finish second in the eighth race. "We're trying to be professional. We don't need those distractions. " Dominguez is tied for the best winning percentage among all jockeys this year (with Javier Castellano, at 25 percent)

Kent Desormeaux, who was taken off his mounts Friday at Belmont after failing a Breathalyzer test, will not ride Sagamore Farm's Tiger Walk in the Preakness. Sagamore manager Tom Mullikin said Ramon Dominguez will get the ride. "We just can't have that," Mullikin said Friday after watching Sagamore filly Millionreasonswhy finish second in the eighth race. "We're trying to be professional. We don't need those distractions. " Dominguez is tied for the best winning percentage among all jockeys this year (with Javier Castellano, at 25 percent)

Preakness G-I UAE Cup race to feature Arabian horses Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, will join with Pimlico Race Course to host the $75,000-added The President of the United Arab Emirates Cup, a Grade I race for purebred Arabian horses, on Preakness Day, May 19. The race is limited to 14 horses and will be run on the main track at 1 1/16 miles. The Maryland House Ways and Means Committee passed an emergency bill, signed into law by Gov. Martin O'Malley on Tuesday, authorizing Pimlico to conduct live racing of Arabian horses under certain circumstances.

Preakness G-I UAE Cup race to feature Arabian horses Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, will join with Pimlico Race Course to host the $75,000-added The President of the United Arab Emirates Cup, a Grade I race for purebred Arabian horses, on Preakness Day, May 19. The race is limited to 14 horses and will be run on the main track at 1 1/16 miles. The Maryland House Ways and Means Committee passed an emergency bill, signed into law by Gov. Martin O'Malley on Tuesday, authorizing Pimlico to conduct live racing of Arabian horses under certain circumstances.

Horse racing Maryland Racing Commission adds Quade Bruce Quade , 65, of the Eastern Shore was introduced at the Maryland Racing Commission's monthly meeting as the group's newest member. "Being on this commission is something I'm interested in, excited and passionate about," said Quade, who is semi-retired from the federal government, where he worked in intelligence and energy. He will serve a four-year term. … The commission will hold a meeting open to the public at 1 p.m. Wednesday to consider the application from Penn National subsidiary Prince George's Racing Ventures LLC for a racetrack license at Rosecroft Raceway.

The future of live thoroughbred racing in Maryland — along with the Preakness Stakes —is in jeopardy once again after a state commission on Tuesday rejected a proposed racing schedule contingent on several conditions that horse owners and breeders refused to accept. That means the Laurel Park racetrack could close its doors Jan. 1 unless a last-minute deal is reached between the horsemen and owners of the Maryland Jockey Club, which operates the tracks. Pimlico Race Course doesn't traditionally run races until the spring, when it puts on the Preakness, the second leg of racing Triple's Crown and the state's largest single sporting event.

Frank F. Favazza Jr., a general contractor who was a member of the Maryland Racing Commission, died of Parkinson's disease complications Wednesday at Lorien Mays Chapel Health Center in Timonium. He was 82. "He was a true American dream," said former Mayor Thomas J. D'Alesandro III, who was a close friend. "He started as a manual laborer and became one of the top general contractors in Maryland. " Born in Baltimore and raised in the Pimlico section of Northwest Baltimore, Mr. Favazza worked alongside his father at a produce store and with his mother at their Boarman Café on Reisterstown Road, where the Favazzas were known for their pizzas and other dishes.

On Feb. 2, 1961, at 1 p.m., a train carrying fans to Bowie Race Course derailed near the race track, killing six and injuring more than 200. Undaunted, a number of passengers scrambled over the dead and wounded, smashed windows and hurried on foot to Bowie, in 15-degree cold, to place their bets before the first race. One man walked to the track with a broken collarbone. Another limped out of the woods nearby carrying a bag of money and one of his shoes. "I saw people with blood all over them, standing there (at the mutual windows)

Clinton Pitts Jr., an associate steward at Maryland's thoroughbred tracks, has submitted his resignation to the Maryland Racing Commission and is expected to take a new job as the Jockey Club steward at New York Racing Association tracks.Maryland Racing Commission chairman John H. Mosner Jr. confirmed yesterday that Pitts had submitted his resignation May 26, due to take effect Oct. 13.Pitts, who had been the administrative or chief steward at Laurel and Pimlico race courses, was reassigned to associate steward after he clashed with the racing board last fall.

Clinton Pitts Jr., an associate steward at Maryland's thoroughbred tracks, has submitted his resignation to the Maryland Racing Commission and is expected to take a new job as the Jockey Club Steward at New York Racing Association tracks.Maryland Racing Commission chairman John H. Mosner Jr. confirmed yesterday that Pitts had submitted his resignation May 26, due to take effect Oct. 13.Pitts, who had been the administrative or chief steward at Laurel and Pimlico race courses, was reassigned to associate steward after he clashed with the racing board last fall.

A day after the lack of oversight at Maryland race tracks came to light in a hearing before the Maryland Racing Commission at Pimlico Race Course , the commission's executive director, Mike Hopkins, said steps are already being taken to improve the situation. One of the biggest issues in the hearing that resulted in upholding the disqualification of the Rick Dutrow Jr.-trained King and Crusader from the Dec. 17 Maryland Juvenile Championship at Laurel Park was the disregard for a regulation mandating slips for each horse being treated before a race to be reviewed by the stewards or their representatives within an hour of each race.

Live horse racing is back after the Maryland Racing Commission approved racing dates for both the Timonium Fair Grounds race track and Laurel Park on Friday. Timonium will open for the Maryland State Fair meet Aug. 26, which will be the first live racing in the state since Preakness Day in May. The Laurel Park meet begins Sept. 9, with racing expanded to five days a week in October. The Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash - an elite six-furlong sprint that lost its graded status after not being run last year - will return, as will a pair of historic stakes for 2-year-olds, the Laurel Futurity and Selima Stakes.

When Penn National Gaming bought the bankrupt Rosecroft Raceway this year, it promised to resume live harness racing there for the first time in nearly three years. To be sure, the giant national gambling conglomerate made clear its intent to also seek slot machines or other kinds of expanded gambling there. But the commitment to resuming racing sounded unconditional: "As the largest operator of pari-mutuel facilities in the country, and the host to an industry high 1,300 live racing events annually, we are uniquely qualified and look forward to working with Rosecroft stakeholders to attempt to restore live racing," the company's CEO, Peter M. Carlino, said in a news release after the purchase was finalized.

State racing regulators agreed Wednesday to grant a license for Rosecroft Raceway to resume live racing after a three-year hiatus, but placed financial conditions on the owner that some say will keep the facility's operations in limbo. Expressing concerns about the harness track's financial viability, the Maryland Racing Commission voted 7-1 to order parent Penn National Gaming to cover projected operating losses for 2011 and 2012. The decision means live racing won't necessarily resume any time soon at the Prince George's County track.

Horse racing Maryland Racing Commission adds Quade Bruce Quade , 65, of the Eastern Shore was introduced at the Maryland Racing Commission's monthly meeting as the group's newest member. "Being on this commission is something I'm interested in, excited and passionate about," said Quade, who is semi-retired from the federal government, where he worked in intelligence and energy. He will serve a four-year term. … The commission will hold a meeting open to the public at 1 p.m. Wednesday to consider the application from Penn National subsidiary Prince George's Racing Ventures LLC for a racetrack license at Rosecroft Raceway.

Kegasus, Lord of the Infield Fest at next month's Preakness drew animated discussion Tuesday at the monthly meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission. Tom Cooke, president of Cloverleaf Standardbred Owners Association and professor at Georgetown University, started the discussion by voicing his view of the Maryland Jockey Club promoting excessive drinking at this year's Preakness. "I know a lot about alcohol abuse," Cooke told the commission. "It leads to everything from verbal abuse to felony assault, drunk driving, spousal abuse and [more]

The move to reopen the investigation into Secretariat's 1973 Preakness time gathered some momentum yesterday at a routine meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission at Laurel Park.Marty Jacobs, executive general counsel of the Maryland Jockey Club, said the organization will "make a formal request" of the panel to look into the matter, which has been a subject of debate for a quarter-century."Computerized timing is available now, and we believe it will reveal the true time as opposed to the official time," said Jacobs.

Allan Levey, a member of the Maryland Racing Commission, said the board will meet Tuesday evening in Baltimore to vote whether to grant the Cracked Claw restaurant in Urbana an off-track betting license.Levey chaired a meeting in Frederick on Wednesday night and heard "mostly opposition" from a number of county residents about the location of the proposed parlor.Levey also said that three of the county commissioners and two state legislators from the jurisdiction also have voiced opposition to the Cracked Claw site.

The Maryland Jockey Club, the financially strapped operator of the state's major thoroughbred tracks that is seeking state assistance to stay afloat, lost tens of millions of dollars in recent years, including at the once-profitable Pimlico Race Course , home of the Preakness Stakes. The Laurel Park and Pimlico tracks lost more than $14 million in 2009, according to data recently submitted in unaudited financial statements to the Maryland Racing Commission. Combined, the tracks lost nearly $12 million in 2008.

Baltimore lawyer and Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos faces potential competition from other bidders interested in buying bankrupt Rosecroft Raceway as well as opposition from state officials to legalizing slot machines at the Prince George's County horse track. Gov. Martin O'Malley said Wednesday that he is focused on getting slots casinos at the five locations approved by voters in 2008 up and running "before we talk about expanding" gambling at other places. And despite Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller's support for slots at the Rosecroft harness racetrack, other state lawmakers might not be ready to reopen the debate.