Stakes Races

I'll Have Another's path to the Triple Crown will be crowded. His competition at the Preakness, the second leg, could include the five horses who followed him across the line at the Kentucky Derby. That hasn't happened since 1958. In fact, the last time even the top five Derby finishers all raced in Baltimore was 1992. Bodemeister, the pacesetter and runner-up last Saturday, remains undecided. Trainer Bob Baffert - a five-time winner of the Preakness - is in California and does not plan to visit Bodemeister or Derby sixth-place finisher Liason until the weekend.

Et cetera Spring meet at Pimlico gets out of gate today Live racing returns to Baltimore today with the beginning of the spring meeting at Pimlico Race Course . Considered the marquee meet of the Maryland racing season, it culminates May 19 with the 137th running of the Preakness. The first of 22 stakes races, the $50,000 Shine Again Stakes, will feature nine Maryland-bred fillies and mares vying for their first win in a money-added race Saturday. "There is a special feeling about Pimlico because of the third Saturday in May," Maryland Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas said.

Prominent Maryland horse owner and breeder Sondra Bender died Wednesday afternoon after a battle with uterine cancer. She was 78 A resident of Bethesda, Bender and her husband Howard owned Glade Valley Farm in Frederick. “I considered her the first lady of Maryland racing,” Larry Murray, who has trained for Bender since 1988 and is the farm manager at Glade Valley, said in a news release. “She enjoyed the game and was very classy. She took the bad just as well as the good.

Laurel Park 11 stakes tentatively set for winter meet Laurel Park's winter meeting this year will feature 11 stakes races, pending Maryland Racing Commission approval, after the Maryland Jockey Club and Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association agreed to a schedule. The next commission meeting is Tuesday at Laurel Park. Headlining the program will be a pair of Grade II $200,000 seven-furlong sprints on Presidents Day weekend: the Barbara Fritchie Handicap for fillies and mares Feb. 18 and the General George Handicap for males two days later.

Live horse racing is back after the Maryland Racing Commission approved racing dates for both the Timonium Fair Grounds race track and Laurel Park on Friday. Timonium will open for the Maryland State Fair meet Aug. 26, which will be the first live racing in the state since Preakness Day in May. The Laurel Park meet begins Sept. 9, with racing expanded to five days a week in October. The Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash - an elite six-furlong sprint that lost its graded status after not being run last year - will return, as will a pair of historic stakes for 2-year-olds, the Laurel Futurity and Selima Stakes.

Laurel Park will be host to 68 race days and 27 stakes races this fall after the Maryland Jockey Club reached agreement with the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and Maryland Horse Breeders Association today. The schedule was approved by the Maryland Racing Commission this afternoon. The meet begins Sept. 9 and ends Dec. 17. The highlight of the met is the 26th running of the Jim McKay Maryland Million on Oct. 1 and the return of the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash on Oct. 22. It had been on a one-year hiatus.

Sagamore Farm's Millionreasonswhy won the $150,000 Grade II Matron Stakes at Belmont Park on Sunday. Jockey John Velazquez rode the 2-year-old filly, a 6-1 shot, to a two-length victory over Say a Novena in the six-furlong race. Millionreasonswhy finished in 1 minute, 12.68 seconds, over the fast track that dulled after rain earlier in the day. Millionreasonswhy, trained by Ignacio Correas IV, pulled ahead of Say a Novena a little more than three furlongs into the race and pulled away for the win. "Sagamore is very proud of the tremendous effort put forth by Millioreasonswhy today," said Tom Mullikin, general manager of Sagamore Farm.

Spring brings renewal, and that was the feeling among some horsemen Wednesday, when the Maryland Jockey Club released a Pimlico spring stakes schedule that includes the return of the Grade III Allaire duPont Distaff on Preakness Day and a $100,000 boost to the purse for the day before's Grade II Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. The MJC unveiled the stakes schedule after reaching agreement with the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and Maryland Horse Breeders Association. All that remains is for the Maryland Racing Commission to approve it Feb. 15 at its monthly meeting at Laurel Park.

The Maryland Jockey Club released its 2011 Pimlico spring stakes schedule today and the eight-week meet will feature 22 stakes races for purses of $2.9 million. The schedule, released after reaching agreement with both the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and Maryland Horse Breeders Association, still needs approval from the Maryland Racing Commission, which will hold its monthly meeting at Laurel Park on Feb. 15. The headline event of the meet that begins April 1 is the 136th running of the $1 million Preakness Stakes, a Grade I race that is the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, on May 21. Tickets for the event went on sale Tuesday.

Laurel Park Track to host 15 stakes races during winter meeting The 2011 Laurel Park winter meeting will feature 15 stakes races, since the Maryland Jockey Club, the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and the Maryland Horse Breeders Association have agreed to a schedule. Headlining the program are a pair of Grade 2 $150,000 seven-furlong sprints on Presidents Day weekend: the Barbara Fritchie Handicap for fillies and mares Feb. 19 and the General George Handicap for males two days later.