Racing Fans

Maryland is fortunate to be a state with a long history rich in traditions - including the horse racing industry, which dates back to the Colonial era. The Maryland Jockey Club is almost 250 years old. In 1771, George Washington wrote that he came to Annapolis to watch and bet on the Maryland horse races. Saturday, the Preakness Stakes will be run for the 134th time. As other professional sports have evolved and prospered in our state, we have slowly started to lose this tradition upon which much of our agricultural heritage is founded.

Scott Borgemenke, executive vice president of racing for Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park, took time yesterday to address a number of issues: On the possible sale of either Maryland track: "We've no plans right now to sell either one of the facilities. Would I say ever? You never know. Someone could be knocking with a really big check. But it's not in the plans right now. But then again, I don't know what our partners look like or what they will be asking for. ... But we're not looking to get out of Maryland racing at all."

ACCOKEEK -- They come to the street races for the thrill, to win money on bets, to prove something. But yesterday, racing fans, along with residents, mourners and curious onlookers, came to a flat stretch of highway here for a very different reason: to leave flowers, to pick up car pieces, to grieve and to ask if something could have been done to stop a drag race that killed eight people early Saturday morning. Some wondered aloud whether the tragic accident will bring an end to the chronic, dangerous scene or if the races will just crop up in a new location.

The images will return today like snapshots from a funeral: Barbaro breaking through the gate prematurely. Barbaro breaking down in the first furlong. Crestfallen jockey Edgar Prado in tears. Barbaro being hauled away from Pimlico Race Course in an ambulance as night closed in. One more time, the nation's racing fans - along with many who are not - will mourn the loss of a champion. One more time, they will remember the moment, the ordeal and the bitter end. "What I loved was seeing Michael Matz run over and give the jockey a hug," Aynsley Smith, a sport psychologist for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Tears are now a part of horse racing, and we learned just recently that even when old ones dry, new tears inevitably well up. This is why this week isn't really about year-old memories of a fantastic horse named Barbaro and it isn't about the ocean's worth of tears shed on his behalf. If you're looking for someone worth rooting for at Saturday's Preakness, you won't find him in this new batch of 3-year-olds, either, whether you're Flying First Class or you've got a bit of Street Sense.

Laurel -- Darryl Carideo is by himself. Pressed against the outside fence of the track, Carideo will not be swayed from his usual position by either the frigid temperatures or the isolation. The last race ended barely five minutes ago, and the handful of others who come out to watch the horses run live have retreated to the warmer confines of the Laurel Park concourse. Carideo, though, studies his race book. He is waiting for the horses scheduled to run next to come out before finalizing his picks.

It has been four days since Barbaro broke down in the first furlong of the Preakness, and the conspiracy theorists are still coming out of the woodwork. The horse wasn't sound to begin with. The horse hurt himself breaking through the gate before the race. Someone was seen behind a grassy knoll at Old Hilltop. If you don't like conspiracy theories, how about a doomsday scenario? Barbaro's injury might be the end of horse racing as we know it. The sport is in such staggering decline that this horrible moment in thoroughbred racing history just might push the industry over the precipice ... perhaps even onto the Outdoor Life Network.

If you're a fan of Maryland horseracing, you'll want to be at the Maryland Million at Laurel Park on Saturday. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the racing event, which is restricted to the offspring of Maryland stallions. Racing fans will see Maryland horses compete in 12 races, with purses totaling nearly $1.5 million. In addition to watching the races, visitors can attend an autograph-signing by Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, watch musical performances by the Marine Corps Marching Band and see the Maryland Million Horse Fair.

DOVER, Del. - Nextel Cup driver Jimmie Johnson will stand just offstage at Dover International Speedway this afternoon, waiting for his name to be called during pre-race introductions and steel himself against what he knows will come. "Driving the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet, Jimmie Johnson," the track announcer will intone. The boos will surely cascade from grandstands filled with more than 100,000 racing fans, just as they have for weeks now, and fill his ears as he walks onstage, smiling, waving.