Preakness Week

You won't have to wait until post time to get into the Preakness spirit. Starting tomorrow, giddyap for nine days of hot-air balloon and schooner races, marching bands and floats, music, spectacular fireworks and more. It's Preakness Celebration, a festival stuffed with more than 30 events designed to lead you to the starting gate of the 125th running of the Preakness Stakes, the middle jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown challenge. In its 12-year history, Preakness Celebration has grown from a modest effort to celebrate a horse race to a monumental event that attracts media attention and generates tourism.

Horse racing Shared Account to be bred with '06 Preakness champ Sagamore Farm announced that recently retired 2010 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf champion Shared Account will be bred to 2006 Preakness champion Bernardini. Bernardini has produced 335 foals of racing age with earnings totaling $7,316,863 over three years. Registered progeny of Bernardini include seven graded stakes winners, 10 stakes winners and eight stakes placers. Notable active thoroughbreds Bernardini has sired include three-year-old, Stay Thirsty, owned by Repole Stable and winner of the 2011 Travers Stakes with $1,475,000 in career earnings.

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.

If Regal Solo, a 6-year-old gelding, wins the Maryland Million Sprint Saturday afternoon at Laurel Park, he would become the first horse to win three different Million races. "He's versatile," his trainer Damon Dilodovico said Wednesday. "He's push-button when his feet are good. And I've always thought he was better at short distances than long. " In 2007 the son of 1996 Preakness winner Louis Quatorze won the Million Nursery for 2-year-olds over 6-furlongs. Last year, he won the 1 1/8 th -mile Million Classic.

Giddy up. There are a couple of weeks left until the Preakness hooves start pounding. In anticipation of this amazing race, there will be a robust series of festivities in Baltimore -- everything from hot air balloons to racing crabs. Here is a comprehensive list of the pre-Preakness presentations: Preakness Party at the Walters Art Museum. Preakness celebrations kick off tomorrow with a high-end shindig at the Walters Art Museum's sculpture garden. In addition to an open bar, live music and munchies, those who attend can take guided tours of the museum's current exhibit, Stubbs and the Horse.

Races, on and off the track, were an integral part of Preakness Week. Whether it was the hot-air balloons, crab pickers, 5K runners or the horses at Pimlico, it was a week filled with the thrill of the race.The first social event out of the gate this year took place before Preakness Week, at the Governor's Mansion in Annapolis, where Gov. William Donald Schaefer, Maryland's official hostess, Hilda Mae Snoops, and track owner Joe DeFrancis greeted some of the racing world's who's who.Early arrivals were Florida residents Shelly and Annette Willis, TTC owners of Pistols and Roses, who ran in the Pimlico Special; King Leatherbury, horse trainer; John Lenzini, trainer; Jack and Gretchen Mobberly, who own a horse farm in Howard County; Martha and Frank Hopkins, Harford County breeders (in his spare time, Frank serves on the Maryland Racing Commission)

Pimlico Race Course officials have changed the time of the post position draws for the Preakness Stakes and Early Times Dixie.Previously held on the Thursday morning before the Preakness, the draws will be held in the Pimlico Sports Palace at approximately 5: 30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 15.The Grade I, $500,000 Preakness and Grade II, $200,000 Early Times will be run May 18."The popularity of the post position draws has grown dramatically," said Pimlico president Joe De Francis. "This change certainly enhances the draws."

As minds shift toward the Preakness, many Baltimoreans look forward to balloons as much as horses. The annual Preakness balloon race -- celebrating its 20th launch tomorrow -- now qualifies as a major spring tradition.And, over the weekend, 32 hot air balloons from across the country will lend seasonal charm to other events around the area."Balloon races have such a great ability to draw people from all walks of life and of all ages," says Dan Sherrill, owner of the American Balloon Corp.

RACE AT A GLANCE: Ten brown horses chase each other for mile and 3/16ths in middle jewel of racing's Triple Crown before massive Woodstock-like traffic jam paralyzes northwest Baltimore.TODAY'S PROFILE: Strike the Gold. Incredibly lucky 4-to-1 showon Kentucky Derby when rest of field succumbed to rare form of equine narcolepsy and dozed off in home stretch. Trainer Nick Zito banking heavily on solar eclipse during Preakness, with his horse lone entry wearing night-vision goggles.HOW THOROUGHBRED HORSES ARE NAMED: First thought that pops into owner's head, often while being restrained by ward attendants.

The run-up to the Big Event is often more fun than the race itself. That's how exciting Preakness Week has become in Baltimore.A vast array of music festivals, parades, block parties, balls, races for the two-legged set and hot-air ballooning is crammed into this week, all celebrating Baltimore's -- and Maryland's -- premier thoroughbred race. The Preakness Stakes attracts intense nationwide attention and a huge television audience. It is Baltimore's moment to shine.And shine this region does with enough activity to satisfy the biggest party-people.

If it's the middle of May, you can bet that somebody somewhere is talking about what can be done to fix the Preakness Stakes. So, count me as not surprised when a story surfaced Monday in the Thoroughbred Times quoting MI Developments (MID) executive Mike Rogers saying that it might be a good idea at some point to move the second jewel of the Triple Crown from Saturday to Sunday. I guess we should just be relieved that Frank Stronach's right-hand man wasn't talking about moving it from Maryland to Florida.

If the Black Eyed Susan were a race horse, it would be a sprinter. It makes one strong move, then fades quickly. The strong move occurs this weekend when the cocktail will be in demand at Pamlico Race Track, during both the running of the Black Eyed Susan Stakes on Friday and the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. Over these two days, about 25,000 servings of the libation, poured into commemorative glasses, will be sold at track officials say. But as soon as Preakness weekend ends, so does the does the local thirst for the Susan.

Baltimore, you must be proud. Here it is, the start of Preakness Week, all eyes in the world of horse racing riveted on our city, thousands of visitors pouring in for Saturday's big race, the fabled second jewel of the Triple Crown. And everywhere you go, there are signs urging folks to "Get Your Preak On." And radio commercials talking about "Getting Your Preak On." Nice. Just what the city needs. Just what horse racing needs, too. Here's a sport that's already on life support, enjoyed by about two dozen people under the age of 70 across the entire country.

Most of the time, the small gifted staff of Deerfield Designs in Ellicott City provides custom murals, hand-painted tiles, faux finishes and other one-of-a-kind touches for homes in the Baltimore region. But every year in early May, the shop, housed in a barn-like building on a leafy cul-de-sac, shifts gears and churns out statues of jockeys. The 9-inch-high statues will be distributed to horse owners at the Alibi Breakfast, a meet-the-press event that takes place tomorrow at Pimlico Race Course, two days before the Preakness Stakes.

Most of the time, the small staff of Deerfield Designs in Ellicott City provides custom murals, hand-painted tiles, faux finishes and other one-of-a-kind touches for homes in the Baltimore region. But every year in early May, the shop, housed in a barn-like building on a leafy cul-de-sac, shifts gears and churns out statues of jockeys. The 9-inch-high statues will be distributed to horse owners at the Alibi Breakfast, a meet-the-press event that takes place tomorrow at the Pimlico Race Course, two days before the Preakness Stakes.

From parades and fun runs to free zydeco performances, this week's Preakness Celebration includes a number of regional pre-race events. Festivities start at 6 p.m. tomorrow, with a free performance by the Crawdaddies, a local funk/zydeco group, at Belvedere Square. The three-hour show is at the corner of York Road and Belvedere Avenue. "We're very excited," said Crawdaddies guitarist Chris Huntington. "Preakness is a tradition around here, and it's nice to be a part of it." At 9 a.m. Saturday, runners will head to Pimlico Race Course for the Preakness 5k. The race starts and finishes at the race course.

Threats of a trip to the steam pot worked about as well in yesterday's Media Crab Derby as threats of a trip to the glue factory might work in the real Preakness.The fact is: Blue crabs can't race.They can pinch. They can blow spit bubbles. They can steam up red.But make 'em race, as the Lexington Market did for its second annual Preakness Week crab derby, and the Chesapeake's finest tend to make like deadbeats. Nonetheless, about a dozen local radio, television and newspaper personalities each picked a live crab from Faidley's Seafood, then proceeded to shout, clap and otherwise cajole their crabs -- however s-l-o-w-l-y -- toward the finish line.

Threats of a trip to the steam pot worked about as well in yesterday's Media Crab Derby as threats of a trip to the glue factory might work in the real Preakness.The fact is: Blue crabs can't race.They can pinch. They can blow spit bubbles. They can steam up red.But make 'em race, as the Lexington Market did for its second annual Preakness Week crab derby, and the Chesapeake's finest tend to make like deadbeats. Nonetheless, about a dozen local radio, television and newspaper personalities each picked a live crab from Faidley's Seafood, then proceeded to shout, clap and otherwise cajole their crabs -- however s-l-o-w-l-y -- toward the finish line.

Milroy Harried, the owner of M Salon and Spa, got tired of competing with the gigantic balloons, loud marching bands and colorful dancers passing by his Eutaw Street window, so he stepped onto the sidewalk to get a better view. Harried realized that attractions from yesterday's Westside Preakness Parade were more of a draw than a wash and cut. "We had to put the hair on hold because all of our customers came outside to watch," Harried said. "I've been a Preakness Parade watcher for years.

With a pair of Irish bands set to perform two free concerts, this year's Preakness celebration will take on a greener tint. Ireland's the Saw Doctors and local act the Donegal X-Press will play at Inner Harbor East and Belvedere Square, respectively, city officials announced yesterday. These two shows are the newest additions to the annual celebration's lineup, which starts May 12 and culminates with the running of the 131st Preakness Stakes May 20. Festivities include 5K races, the Preakness Parade, Frog Hop, Crab Derby and Balloon Fest.