Preakness Stakes

It will be moving day soon for the Maryland Racing Commission. The state sent notice yesterday to the Maryland Jockey Club, the commission's landlord, that the state was terminating its cut-rate lease for office space at Pimlico Race Course. While the lease might have been a good one for the state financially -- $1 a year with utilities included -- Gov. Martin O'Malley said it represented an apparent conflict of interest. The Maryland Jockey Club -- part of Magna Entertainment Corp., the Canadian-based owners of Pimlico, Laurel Park and the Preakness Stakes -- is regulated by the commission.

THIS YEAR'S passage of a new ethics law covering General Assembly members has sparked something of a philosophical question in Annapolis: Is the Preakness Stakes a "sporting" or "cultural" event?For the jockeys and trainers, the third Saturday in May is all about sports and betting. For the sunburned beer-guzzlers running amok in the infield, the Preakness is, well, a cultural experience of a sort.But for legislators, it's a tougher question and, as is so often the case, money is riding on the answer.

The Derby is a raceof aristocratic sleekness,For horses of birth toprove their worthTo run in the Preakness.-- Ogden NashThe Preakness Stakes, which will be run at Pimlico Race Course today, can't help but evoke the specter of great horses. There have been many: Sir Barton, Citation, Whirlaway, Gallant Fox, War Admiral, Challedon, Count Fleet and Secretariat all conquered the challenging 1 3/16-mile course and passed into racing history."Inevitably, the Preakness and Derby are compared," Joseph B. Kelly, racing historian who was for many years racing editor of the now defunct Washington Star, wrote on the race's 100th anniversary in 1975.

Charismatic is the horse chasing the Triple Crown, but he represents just one of the compelling stories in today's 124th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.Menifee, the Kentucky Derby runner-up, will be the Preakness favorite. And Worldly Manner, the horse from the Middle East who finished seventh in the Derby, adds international flair.The second jewel of the Triple Crown is a fitting sequel to the Derby: the comeback kid on Charismatic, a trainer seeking a third straight win, a filly taking on males and a controversial horse prompting jokes about batteries.

IF THE weather holds, and no mishaps befall any of the thoroughbreds in their stalls or during their exercises, the stage could be set for a dramatic and crowded Preakness Stakes this afternoon.As many as a baker's dozen could run in this history-laden race that dates to 1873. This might create a traffic jam of fast-moving horse flesh out of the starting gate, and also when they hit the tight clubhouse turn. But we're unlikely to see the sort of dangerous stampede of 19 horses that marred the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago.Charismatic, trained by D. Wayne Lukas, won that race, despite 31-1 odds.

The stakes are high at this year's Preakness extravaganza, and the horses are not the only participants preparing for the event.The spirit of competition will spread through the city as swift sprinters, skilled balloonists and savvy sailors take part in the hot-air balloon race, 5-K Preakness Run and a Great Schooner Race during the annual weeklong Preakness Celebration. It begins tomorrow and continues through May 15, the day of the Preakness Stakes.Other races during the celebration include the lighthearted Preakness Crab Derby, Lee's Ice Cream Banana Split Stakes and the Pee Wee Preakness.

On a sparkling spring afternoon at Pimlico, when the scary combined with the sublime, Charismatic captured the 124th Preakness Stakes yesterday before a record crowd of 100,311 and immediately set his sights on history.The gritty workhorse will attempt to become the 12th Triple Crown winner June 5 when he races in the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park. No horse has won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont since Affirmed in 1978.After stunning the sports world with a long-shot victory in the Derby, Charismatic became the third horse in the past three years to depart the Preakness with a chance for glory.

To prevent a power outage of the kind that threw the annual Preakness race into darkness last year, the owners of the Pimlico Race Course in Northwest Baltimore have installed five backup generators in tractor-trailers around the park.Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. has also spent more than a million dollars to replace three electrical transformers, a switching device and underground cable to prevent a recurrence of last year's blackout, according to utility and race officials.The running of the 124th Preakness Stakes will take place Saturday.

Fliers will hurl bean-bags at a target during a hot-air balloon race. A parade will march through the center of Baltimore, country music bands will play, sailboats will race and the Inner Harbor will come alive with parties.And don't forget the horse race.Organizers of the annual Preakness Stakes at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course announced plans yesterday for a weeklong festival May 7-15 leading up to the famed race."For 124 years, the state of Maryland has had the honor of hosting the Preakness, the middle jewel in horse racing's famed Triple Crown series," said David S. Iannucci, deputy secretary of the state Department of Business and Economic Development, at a news conference.

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.

WILMINGTON, Del. - - A federal bankruptcy judge approved Wednesday a plan to auction Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park early next year, over objections from the tracks' former owners, who opposed the speed of the sale. Meanwhile, two potential Maryland buyers - developers David S. Cordish and Carl Verstandig - reiterated their interest in bidding on the tracks and the Preakness Stakes. Magna Entertainment Corp., the Canadian firm that owns the racetracks and the Preakness Stakes and filed for bankruptcy protection in March, said the auction should be held quickly because Maryland law gives the state 60 days to review a deal and the right to match any bid. The sale procedures also would require potential buyers to keep the Preakness, the middle leg of racing's Triple Crown, in Maryland, satisfying concerns of the state and others in the horse industry who had feared losing the state's single largest sporting event.

N ews item: : Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird might run in the Belmont Stakes with his third jockey in three races because Preakness rider Mike Smith was already committed to a race in California that day. My take: : I guess when you come out of nowhere to win the Derby and come within a length of running down the best filly in decades at the Preakness, you just have to take pot luck. The only thing that could make this story better would be if trainer Chip Woolley Jr. threw away his crutch and rode the horse himself in the Belmont.

On the morning after the Preakness Stakes, Pimlico Race Course typically is home to a long-standing ritual: a huge cleanup effort to pick up thousands of empty beer cans, food waste and discarded clothing left behind by drunken infield revelers. But not this year. Thanks to the new ban on bring-your-own alcohol, this year's Preakness may be remembered - at least by the people who work the event - as the first in memory where they didn't have a foul stew of booze and other detritus to sweep away the day after the festivities.

They threw a hell of an infield party at Pimlico Race Course yesterday. Too bad nobody showed up. Normally, you have, what, 60,000 beered-up fans shoehorned into the infield for the Preakness? Saturday, there was a fraction of that. Saturday, you could have landed planes out there, it was so empty. In one of the great Baltimore protests of all time, the sweltering masses rose up as one and thundered: You won't let us bring beer to your party? Fine, we won't show up at all. See how you like that.

Calvin Borel was nervous last week. Jittery, shaking, break-into-a-cold-sweat kind of nervous. His fiancee, Lisa Funk, had never seen him so rattled in the nine years they've been together. He kept telling her he was convinced he was going to mess up. And the whole world would be watching. But it didn't have anything to do with the 134th running of the Preakness Stakes. And it wasn't at all related to his controversial decision to ride Rachel Alexandra on Saturday, even though he won the Kentucky Derby on Mine That Bird.

With his Black-Eyed Susan win Friday, trainer Larry Jones is in position to take the rare double-double he came close to winning last year. Payton d'Oro easily gave Jones the victory, holding a steady lead throughout after setting the pace early along the rail. Jones will run Friesan Fire in Saturday's Preakness Stakes, a horse that was a favorite to win the Kentucky Derby before struggling in the mud at Churchill Downs. If Friesan Fire wins, it will mean personal vindication for Jones.

Despite the building anticipation of a classic horse race with a compelling story line, this year's Preakness comes with a triple whammy of potential party poopers. If the economy were not enough to dampen the festivities - and it is - there's also the bankruptcy of Pimlico Race Course's owner and the resulting questions over the race's future. Then there's that beer thing - a newly adopted ban on bringing your own brew to the infield that many former Preakness fans find as palatable as a warm Natty Boh. Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas said ticket sales are picking up after a slow start, particularly since star filly Rachel Alexandra entered the field of challengers to Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.

Longtime Pimlico Race Course official Chick Lang remembers renting an upper room at a Louisville hotel and dropping 2,000 yellow balloons with "Preakness" in black lettering onto unsuspecting watchers of the Kentucky Derby parade below. The stunt was designed to promote Baltimore's answer to the Derby. Forty-eight years later, the iconic race that Lang calls "as much a part of Baltimore as the Shot Tower and the Inner Harbor" needs more than publicity. It might also need rescuing. The middle jewel of racing's Triple Crown will run Saturday with an uncertain future, owing to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in March of Magna Entertainment Corp.

Monday's hearing on the sale of Laurel Park, Pimlico Race Course and other racetracks owned by Magna Entertainment Corp. was delayed a second time, to May 4. A U.S. bankruptcy judge granted final approval Monday for $38.4 million in financing to continue operations. The amount was reduced from the $62.5 million initially proposed, and the maturity extended 60 days until Nov. 6, allowing a longer marketing period for potential sale of Magna's assets. Magna, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, is asking the judge for permission to auction Maryland's thoroughbred tracks and other properties, including Santa Anita Park in Southern California.

In less than a year, the prospect of saving Maryland's racing industry with an infusion of slots dollars has become something of a mirage. The owner of the state's biggest tracks is in bankruptcy court, the promise of robust gaming parlors is iffy and the future of the Preakness Stakes is fuzzy. And the latest interested buyer of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park wants to build shopping malls on their grassy environs and says he'll pay for the tracks - in cash. After years of debate over legalizing slots in Maryland, voters overwhelmingly approved them (granted, the recession and the state's deep budget woes helped)