Preakness Day

The Harford County man who raised his fists against a charge of thoroughbreds in the homestretch at Pimlico Race Course on Preakness Day pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment, according to Baltimore court officials.The city state's attorney's office said Lee Cheng Ferrell, 22, entered the guilty plea on Tuesday before Judge William Quarles in Circuit Court.As part of an agreement with the Bel Air resident, prosecutors will recommend a three-year suspended sentence and five years' probation.

THE Preakness Stakes is more than just a horse race. It is a weeklong celebration in Baltimore, one that not only provides a variety of entertainment but also turns into a $51 million payoff for the city.Even before as many as 14 thoroughbreds reach the starting gate for the 124th running of the Preakness on Saturday, the city will have benefited from a flurry of pre-race activities worth an estimated $26.8 million to the local economy.Preakness Day itself, with a throng of perhaps 100,000 fans at Pimlico Race Course, should contribute another $24.4 million to this city's economy.

Lobbyist for kids puts partisanship above public healthI find it ironic that Vincent DeMarco, in his role with the Maryland Children's Initiative, has spent $20,000 on a radio advertising campaign attacking the Republican state senators involved with the extended debate on the tobacco tax.Four Democrats played a prominent role in extending this debate. Mr. DeMarco's failure to criticize these Democrats is telling.He apparently cares more about being a mouthpiece for the Democrats than being an effective advocate for children.

IT'S QUIET AT Pimlico Race Course this morning. If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of cleanup crews sweeping losing parimutuel tickets from the ground. Sweep, sweep, sweep. Or you can wonder whatever happened to Parris Glendening. Wonder, wonder, wonder. Or you might recall the sound of Jim McKay, trying to laugh around the rough spots. Yuk, yuk, yuk.McKay, the old ABC-TV sportscaster and Maryland horseman, hosted last week's Alibi Breakfast at Pimlico, where racing types and various hangers-on gathered to drum up interest in yesterday's 124th running of the Preakness Stakes.

Early returns from the first Colonial Downs harness meeting are not promising.Opening night, the track drew a crowd of 6,153 and handled $924,018, not bad figures compared with last fall's thoroughbred stand.But the numbers fell off dramatically during the next two cards -- to 2,003 attendance and $401,698 in handle last Sunday, a money figure lower than any single day of the thoroughbred meet.The figures include totals bet on Colonial's races at simulcast outlets around the country."It's uncharted water here.

Gates open: 8:30 a.m.Post time: 11 a.m.Admission:General admission: $12Clubhouse: $15Infield: $25Seating capacity:New Grandstand: 6,415Old Grandstand: 5,926Clubhouse: 1,285Sports Palace: 160Standing room: 22,000 estimateInfield capacity: 60,000Terrace box seats: 3,936Total: 99,722Parking:General (Preakness Way and Rogers Ave.): $20 per car, $40 per busClubhouse preferred (Maple and Belvedere Avenue): $30 per car, $135 per busValet: Extra $10 in Clubhouse lotHayward Avenue Preferred: $80 per car, $250 per busParking capacity:General spaces: 2,100Clubhouse preferred spaces: 1,500Valet spaces: 300Hayward preferred spaces: 320Betting windows: 750 (including temporary windows on Preakness Day)

A decision on whether Coronado's Quest will challenge Kentucky Derby-winner Real Quiet in the Preakness probably will be made today when the owner and trainer of Coronado's Quest confer at Belmont Park.Stuart S. Janney III, who lives in Butler and owns Coronado's Quest, said yesterday that he plans on visiting the colt's trainer, Shug McGaughey, this morning and likely settle the issue of the horse's next race.McGaughey has said he is leaning toward the one-mile Metropolitan Handicap on May 25 at Belmont.

P Day won the feature at Laurel Park yesterday, hugging a favorable rail on the turf course for an easy score.But the real star was Awad, the second leading Maryland-bred winner of all time who was paraded in front of an appreciative crowd before the stakes race named for him.With Gregg McCarron aboard and trainer David Donk on hand to supervise, one of the state's all-time top runners cantered around the track as a prelude to his retirement at stud at...

As a gesture to those who underwent numerous inconveniences at Saturday's Preakness, the Maryland Jockey Club will offer a number of perks to racing fans on Belmont Stakes day June 6.Joe De Francis, Jockey Club president, issued a news release that said:"As a way of saying thank you to our fans for their patience and understanding for all the hardship they had to endure on Preakness Day, on Belmont Day we will be offering free grandstand admission, free...

The betting windows opened at 9: 30 yesterday morning, as 600 pari-mutuel clerks took their places, put on their most pleasant faces and steeled themselves for a long day of money handling at Pimlico Race Course."

Preakness Day might be Maryland horse racing's day in the national spotlight and certainly does the most good for the pocketbook of the state's thoroughbred industry. But Maryland Million Day, being run for the 23rd time Saturday, might do the most good for Maryland's racing pride. The card of 12 races at Laurel Park (12:15 p.m. start) is restricted to horses sired in Maryland, and, as more than one horseman put it, unlike the Preakness, it makes players out of local breeders and trainers rather than relegating them to spectators.

Most days, the little white house is quiet. Robins bob through buttercups on the front lawn, then dart off into the fields surrounding the house. The horse on the mailbox is frozen in a silent gallop. But today will bring a very different scene. Hundreds of cars will crowd around the little house, and the fields will be full of people chatting about track conditions, black-eyed Susans and horses with grand names like Big Brown or Giant Moon. Once the white brick house stood among many others in a quiet neighborhood flanking the Pimlico racetrack.

The showpiece of Preakness Day may not occur until after 6 p.m., but the festivities begin just after dawn. For everyone from the half-dressed college kids on the infield to the fancy-hatted patrons in the grandstand, the race remains one of Baltimore's biggest galas. The jockeys, trainers and owners get most of the attention, but many others contribute to putting on the show. Here are a few of their stories. Sitting down on the job Donna Brothers has grown used to people thinking she has a cool job. Her life has always revolved around horses, and now she gets to ride them on the biggest stage imaginable as the post-race interviewer on NBC's Triple Crown broadcasts.

ONE RIDES A HORSE TO THE FINISH LINE IN FRONT OF A CROWD of cheering fans, and another is aboard when the only spectators are the early-morning denizens of the racetrack. *One is in charge of getting the thoroughbreds out of the starting gate, and another quite literally helps get them started, matching up sires and mares. *One sits in a corporate office, running the place, and another stands guard at a gate late into the night. *Different people, different jobs, yet all the same in one important way -- their lives are entwined with horse racing.

A plastic cup of homemade lemonade, with floating slices of strawberries, for $2. Sixty bucks to park. Extra for that big-body truck. Bathroom break? Five dollars. Can't bear to schlep that heavy cooler? Have somebody roll it for $20. On Preakness Day, outside the sprawling Pimlico Race Course in Northwest Baltimore, it seems there is something for sale on every block. Inside the track, it's $100 bets on Curlin and Hard Spun. Outside, it's $200 for the right to sell Italian sausages and ribs on a stranger's lawn.

On almost any other racing day, Pimlico Race Course is a comfortable, quiet spot to watch the horses. No hassle, no lines, small crowds and good people. But on Preakness Saturday each year, more than 100,000 people make the trek up Northern Parkway, and cultures clash in a tornado of celebration and sin. It begins well before sunrise, and doesn't truly end until the last debutante has climbed into her Mercedes, and the last piece of trash has been scooped from the infield grass the next day. It may be one of the last places in America where drunks and degenerate gamblers can comfortably rub shoulders with politicians and philanthropists, and where the hard work of countless dedicated people provides a backdrop for college kids to pass out in public.

Horse racing Brother Derek, who finished fourth with odds of 56-1 in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, established himself as a contender for next year's Triple Crown with a one-length victory over Your Tent Or Mine in yesterday's $407,250 Hollywood Futurity at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif. The son of Benchmark ran 1 1/16 miles in 1 minute, 42.02 seconds to become the fifth California-bred winner of the Grade I Futurity. He established himself as a horse to watch leading to the 2006 Kentucky Derby, a race six Futurity champs have won, including Giacomo in 2005.

Jade Fertich day-tripped down to Baltimore yesterday not because he was worried about the end of Pimlico; he feared the end of the world. "Lots of sin coming in," the Mechanicsburg, Pa., resident advised, surveying the beer-burdened Preakness Day crowd entering the race course. "Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Despite sunny skies, the start of the day did have a certain cataclysmic feel. Medics pocketed fistfuls of surgical gloves. A policeman stood on a median with his hands in his pockets, as if he had already realized the futility of directing traffic.

Tomorrow's Preakness Stakes may be an internationally known horse race, but at Howard County's struggling Columbia Horse Center, this year's event is more significant than usual. Two months into a tense struggle with a deadly equine virus, which has killed five horses with almost no warning and made five more ill, employees of the horse center and their supporters are fighting back as best they can - with a Preakness Day celebration they hope will boost morale. "This place is a community for so many kids.

The Federico Tesio Stakes traditionally has been a springboard for talented local runners aiming for a chance to enter the Preakness. Since the $150,000 stakes for 3-year-olds began 24 years ago, 13 Tesio champions - and three others who finished in the money - have advanced to the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, including 1983 Preakness winner Deputed Testamony and two notable Preakness runners-up, Oliver's Twist (1995) and Magic Weisner (2002). Today, when Pimlico Race Course offers five six-figure stakes on the first weekend card of the new meeting, Malibu Moonshine moves onto the same proving ground.