Sagamore Farm

Orb's path to the finish line in the second leg of the Triple Crown remains uncrowded. Normandy Invasion, the fourth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, dropped from contention for Saturday's 138th running of the Preakness on Sunday. Trainer Chad Brown and owner Rick Porter decided to stick with their original plan and point the horse toward prestigous races for 3-year-olds later in the summer. That leaves Orb, the colt co-owned by Baltimore County resident Stuart Janney III and Ogden Mills "Dinny" Pipps' stable, with only seven confirmed challengers at this point.

The top local entrant for Friday's 89th running of the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico took one wrong step on Thursday and had to be scratched. Walkwithapurpose, a Maryland-bred owned by Sagamore Farm in Glyndon, was expected to be one of the top contenders in the $500,000 Grade II race run at a mile and one-eighth for 3-year-old-fillies. Thursday afternoon, however, the Sagamore Farm filly had to drop out of the race after bruising her foot earlier in the day during her final gallop on the track at Pimlico in preparation for Friday's race.

Kevin Plank tries to play it cool, but sometimes he just can't maintain the facade. "We were, like, jumping out of our skins," the Under Armour founder says, sounding like a teenager as he recalls the scene after his filly Shared Account won a $2 million Breeder's Cup race in November as a 46-1 long shot. "They were lucky I didn't take off my shirt and run across the finish line myself. " Such wins are just what Plank expected when he bought historic Sagamore Farm four years ago with dreams of re-creating a world-class racing operation in northern Baltimore County.

Et cetera Tesio, Shine Again will be run today at Pimlico Pimlico Race Course will feature two stakes today, the $75,000 Federico Tesio for 3-year-olds and the $50,000 Shine Again for Maryland-bred fillies and mares. The Tesio is a prep for runners with an eye on competing in the Preakness on May 18. Ten runners are entered. Pimlico handicapper Frank Carulli has named Abstraction, who broke his maiden March 13 at Fair Grounds, as his 7-5 morning line choice. Trainer David Carroll has worked his charge three times at Churchill Downs in anticipation of this start.

Et cetera Sagamore Farm filly wins Belmont's Matron Millionreasonswhy, a 2-year-old filly from Sagamore Farm, won the 104th running of the $150,000 Grade II Matron Stakes on Sunday at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y. Under jockey John Velazquez and trained by Ignacio Correas IV , the 6-1 shot finished two lengths in front of Say a Novena while clocking six furlongs in 1minute, 12.68seconds. A $115,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Sagamore last year, Millionreasonswhy is by Grand Slam out of the listed stakes winner In Secure, by A.P. Indy.

When Heat Press last ran in Maryland, he finished third in a three-horse race. Yet his owner - the same man who managed to turn the idea of quick-drying fabric into an athletic apparel empire that brought in nearly $2 billion in revenue last year - spent much of Monday touting the horse's chances against the best 3-year-olds in the country. Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank has never been one to pay the odds much mind. On Monday, he bounced from interview to interview, assuring each camera and recorder of his faith in the inconsistent colt.

As the man responsible for rebuilding Sagamore Farm shook hands with the son of the man who oversaw its halcyon days, Tiger Walk stood stoically in his stall. The other horses in the barn had long since poked their heads out in response to commotion created by television crews and a small gathering of reporters. Tiger Walk faced the other way, looking out his window. Kevin Plank, the Under Armour founder and CEO who bought Sagamore Farm in 2007, hopes Tiger Walk can remain unflappable.

Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank has aggressively marketed his company from the beginning, unabashedly challenging established titans like Nike, Adidas and Reebok. A man who often speaks in sports-centric slogans, it can appear at times that he runs his primary business with the fury of a soon-to-retire linebacker facing playoff elimination. But in his secondary pursuit, Plank has shown patience in a sport that, by nature, often destroys it. He has owned Sagamore Farm for seven years, rebuilding it gradually and allowing manager Tom Mullikan - an old high school buddy and football teammate - to methodically put together a breeding, training and racing program.

Kevin Plank can't help himself. The Under Armour CEO might know, in his heart of hearts, that his horse is a long shot against the world's finest 3-year-old thoroughbreds. His farm manager, Tom Mullikin, describes the dark bay colt as more "grinder" than star. But Plank's own rise, from blindly ambitious college kid to billionaire apparel mogul, is an underdog tale. So he can't help but play Joe Namath and talk big about his colt's chances in the 137th Preakness Stakes. "Tommy, did you guarantee on Tiger Walk?"

Sagamore Farm's Charged Cotton left the starting gate as the 7-5 favorite and lived up to top billing with a rallying score in the $100,000 All Brandy Stakes for registered Maryland-bred fillies and mares at Laurel Park. The All Brandy was contested over the firm turf and included 10 starters. Horacio Karamanos was at the controls as Charged Cotton, a lightly raced daughter of Dehere, stalked the pace from fifth before swinging three wide into the stretch and overtaking front-runner Daydreamin Gracie, then held off a late surge by long shot Grant Park to win by a length and a quarter.

When Heat Press last ran in Maryland, he finished third in a three-horse race. Yet his owner - the same man who managed to turn the idea of quick-drying fabric into an athletic apparel empire that brought in nearly $2 billion in revenue last year - spent much of Monday touting the horse's chances against the best 3-year-olds in the country. Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank has never been one to pay the odds much mind. On Monday, he bounced from interview to interview, assuring each camera and recorder of his faith in the inconsistent colt.

Horse racing Sagamore Farm's Walkwithapurpose wins Caesar's Wish Trainer Ignacio Correas saddled Walkwithapurpose and Listen Boy in Saturday's $150,000 Caesar's Wish Stakes and saw them run first and second in the one-mile test for 3-year-old fillies at Laurel Park. Both fillies are Sagamore Farm homebreds, the winner by Candy Ride, the runner-up by After Market. "It's a great day for Sagamore," Correas said. Walkwithapurpose was the prohibitive 2-5 favorite under Jeremy Rose and won by 91/2 lengths in 1 minute, 38.38 seconds.

Horses chasing a spot in the Kentucky Derby this year must, for the first time, compile points (instead of graded earnings) by finishing in the top four in a series of races chosen by the staff at Churchill Downs. The revised qualification rules are meant to make it easier for the common fan to follow the Derby trail. So let's keep this simple: the hunt really began last week, with the first two races worth a total of 85 points (50-20-10-5). Previous races had only been worth 17 (10-4-2-1)

Major Indoor Soccer League Blast starts fast, routs Silver Knights, 27-13 Lucio Gonzaga scored three goals and Machel Millwood and Adriano Dos Santos each had two, helping the Blast defeat the Syracuse Silver Knights, 27-13, on Sunday. Eight players scored for Baltimore (14-4), which used goals by Mike Lookingland , Millwood, Ptah Myers and Gonzaga in the first four minutes to take an 8-0 lead and extended it to 10-0 on a goal by J.T. Noone before Syracuse got onto the board with a 3-point goal 9:34 into the game.

Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank has aggressively marketed his company from the beginning, unabashedly challenging established titans like Nike, Adidas and Reebok. A man who often speaks in sports-centric slogans, it can appear at times that he runs his primary business with the fury of a soon-to-retire linebacker facing playoff elimination. But in his secondary pursuit, Plank has shown patience in a sport that, by nature, often destroys it. He has owned Sagamore Farm for seven years, rebuilding it gradually and allowing manager Tom Mullikan - an old high school buddy and football teammate - to methodically put together a breeding, training and racing program.

Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time and current Canton dweller , headed north to visit another of the state's most successful sportsmen, horse trainer Graham Motion. Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, tweeted the above photo of the two outside one of Motion's barns at the peaceful, sprawling Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton this afternoon. It was Bowman who got Phelps into racing. He'd picked up an interest years ago because a swimming coach he was working with liked to go out to the races.

A year ago, Shared Account arrived at Churchill Downs for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf as an outsider. Oddsmakers made her a 46-1 long shot, and her response was to win. This year, she's back to defend her title in the $2 million Grade I race. Do the oddsmakers love her? Not exactly. They've given her 30-1 morning-line odds, a fact that has Sagamore Farm general manager Tom Mulligan sending out a warning. "The field is deep, and it's another tough ask of her," Mulligan said.

For his 50th birthday, Patrick Sutton got down - but not dirty - on the farm. The Baltimore interior designer is known for his elegant, understated and carefully curated spaces. To celebrate his milestone birthday, he and his girlfriend, Tracy Kwiatkowski, kept the elegance but added a few rough edges. That approach - mixing high-end style with less refined elements - is a popular one among Baltimore's party planning elite. Sutton's "Rustic Renaissance" birthday festivities took place outside, overlooking the rolling hills of Sagamore Farm, the Reisterstown horse farm owned by Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank (and decorated by Sutton)

Sagamore Farm's Charged Cotton left the starting gate as the 7-5 favorite and lived up to top billing with a rallying score in the $100,000 All Brandy Stakes for registered Maryland-bred fillies and mares at Laurel Park. The All Brandy was contested over the firm turf and included 10 starters. Horacio Karamanos was at the controls as Charged Cotton, a lightly raced daughter of Dehere, stalked the pace from fifth before swinging three wide into the stretch and overtaking front-runner Daydreamin Gracie, then held off a late surge by long shot Grant Park to win by a length and a quarter.