Complete coverage: 2008 Preakness

May 19, 2008

Johnette Howard: Trainer Dutrow enjoying the spotlight

He hit and left town for the Preakness the same way he rolled into Lexington for the Kentucky Derby, calling folks "Babe" and correctly promising that his horse, Big Brown, wouldn't be beaten. "Go to the window," trainer Rick Dutrow told bettors. His biggest concern about Saturday's race? "My girlfriend getting here from Canada," Dutrow said Friday. So when did he finally relax? "After my girlfriend got here," Dutrow told the crowd at his victory news conference with a bad-boy smirk.

May 16, 2008

Johnette Howard: Eight Belles' jockey still in disbelief over tragedy

In a perfect world, he would have been riding in the Preakness Stakes Saturday atop Eight Belles again, his filly that broke down in the Kentucky Derby after a runner-up finish and had to be destroyed on the backstretch, touching off a firestorm of protests about horse racing - some of it directed at him. Instead, soft-spoken 20-year-old jockey Gabriel Saez went mostly unnoticed on a muddy, dreary day at Pimlico Race Course Friday.

May 16, 2008

Johnette Howard: Part owner wisely turned down sale of Big Brown

If he had behaved like a died-in-the-wool pinhooker is supposed to behave, Paul Pompa Jr. might not be making the trip of his racing life down to Pimlico tonight to watch his so-called super horse, Big Brown, try to pick up the second leg of the Triple Crown in tomorrow's Preakness. Bethpage's Michael Iavarone would not have gotten a 75-percent stake in the horse. And Darley racing stable owner Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the most powerful man in the sport, would never have heard two little words that the Sheikh almost never hears: No sale.

April 29, 2008

Ed McNamara: Synthetic-track horses signal new era for handicapping

The Daily Racing Form's past performances show a tiny "A" inside a diamond. "A'' stands for artificial, indicating a race was run on a synthetic surface. To many horseplayers, the "A'' is a scarlet letter, casting doubts on the validity of the form.