Post Position Draw!!

Today is the Post Position Draw for the 138th Running of the Preakness Stakes this Saturday, May 18th!  At noon today, Pimlico Racing Officials will use a pill pull to determine each horses post position.  Just over 3 days until the main event!

There are currently 9 contenders lined up for Saturday, with 5 more spots still TBA.

1.  ORB - Race Records: 9-4-0-1
                Gross Earnings: $383,500
                Trainer:  "Shug" McGaughey
                Jockey: Joel Rosario
                Owner: Stuart Janney III & Phipps Stable
                Breeder: Phipps Stable

2.  Oxbow - Race Records: 10-2-1-1
                  Gross Earnings: $2,335,850
                  Trainer:  D. Wayne Lukas
                  Jockey: Gary Stevens
                  Owner: Calumet Farm
                  Breeder: Colts Neck Stable

3.  Will Take Charge - Race Records: 8-3-1-0
                                  Gross Earnings: $545,371
                                  Trainer:  D. Wayne Lukas
                                  Jockey: Mike Smith
                                  Owner: Willis D. Horton
                                  Breeder: Eaton

4.  Goldencents - Race Records: 7-4-1-0
                           Gross Earnings: $1,250,000
                           Trainer:  Doug O'neill
                           Jockey: Kevin Krigger
                           Owner: W.C. Racing
                           Breeder: Rosecrest Farm

5.  Departing -  Race Records: 5-4-0-1
                        Gross Earnings: $628,000
                        Trainer:  Albert M. Stall, Jr.
                        Jockey: Brian Hernandez, Jr.
                        Owner: Claiborne Farm
                        Breeder: Claiborne Farm

6.  Governor Charlie - Race Records: 3-2-1-0
                                 Gross Earnings: $444,800
                                 Trainer:  Bob Baffert
                                 Jockey: Martin Garcia
                                 Owner: Michael E. Pegram
                                 Breeder: Michael E. Pegram

7.  Mylute - Race Records: 10-2-3-2
                  Gross Earnings: $477,695
                  Trainer:  Tom Amoss
                  Jockey: Rosie Napravnik
                  Owner: GoldMark Farm
                  Breeder: Mike G. Rutherford

8.  Itsmyluckyday - Race Records: 11-5-2-1
                             Gross Earnings: $625,600
                             Trainer:  Eddie Plesa, Jr.
                             Jockey: John Velazquez
                             Owner: Tilogy Stable
                             Breeder: Liberation/Brandywine

9.  Titletown Five - Race Records: 7-1-2-1
                             Gross Earnings: $87,398
                             Trainer:  D. Wayne Lukas
                             Jockey: Julien Leparoux
                             Owner: Hornug/Martin et al
                             Breeder: Stonestreet T.H., LLC

PREAKNESS WEEK!!

It's Preakness week in Baltimore and the the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Preakness 5K kicked off the festivities on Saturday May 11th!  Runners came out in full force to take part in the event, including jockey Forest Boyce and Trainer Tim Keefe.  Track announcer Dave Rodman announced the play by play as the runners crossed the finished line.  This is just the start of many events to ring in the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday May 18th.  Upcoming events include:

Tuesday, May 14 - A Special Evening to Celebrate Secretariat's 40th Anniversary
                             AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910

Wednesday-Friday, May 15-17 - Sunrise at Old Hilltop
                              Come out and see the Black Eyed Susan and Preakness contenders performing
                              their morning workouts and take a brief tour of the stables!



Friday, May 17 - Gr 2 Black Eyed Susan - See the top 3 year old fillies vy for their chance at victory!

                         - Gr 3 Pimlico Special

                         - Infield Concert featuring: Goo Goo Dolls, Rodney Atkins, Rachel Farley

                         - Jockey Autograph session 

Saturday, May 18 - Gr. 1 1,000,000 Preakness Stakes

Upcoming Events at Pimlico

SATURDAY, MAY 4

Derby Day at Pimlico - Triple Crown Party on the Apron

SATURDAY, MAY 11

 Maryland-bred Thoroughbred Hall of Fame Day - Celebrate the inaugural Hall of Fame class at Pimlico with a free poster, compliments of the Maryland Horse Breeders' Association.

FRIDAY, MAY 17

Black-Eyed Susan Day!  Come out and see the ladies run in the 88th Black-Eyed Susan!  Also featured is the Pimlico Special.  Stay late and enjoy the first ever Preakness eve concert in the infield featuring the Goo Goo Dolls.

SATURDAY, MAY 18

The 138th running of the Preakness Stakes and InfieldFest featuring music by Pitbull, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and Afrojack as well as the locals Jagermeister stage!

It's Derby Week!!

Derby week is here!  The most important week in the sport of Thoroughbred racing!  As Churchill Downs is kicking off their festivities to the most important race of the season, Pimlico is getting prepped for Preakness on May 18th.  A lot of work goes into preparing the track for such an important time of year.  The maintenance crew at Pimlico has been working since before the track opened for this years Spring meet.  One has been able to see the builldings going up in the infield for weeks.  It's definitely an exciting time of year! 



And they're off!

Today is opening day for the Spring Meet at Pimlico and the excitement begins!  Post time is set for 1:10 PM.  The weather is currently overcast and 36...but should warm up to the mid 50's by post time.

To view race results for Pimlico's opening day, Thursday 4/4/2013 click the link below:

http://www.pimlico.com/race-info/results



Hi Ho Pimlico!

It's spring time at Pimlico and once again thoroughbred racing has found it's way back to Baltimore!  Getting up for that first morning back wasn't an easy task, but the minute I parked my car and opened the door my nose was touched by the smell of the backstretch and my senses were awakened!  It's hard to explain the feeling you get along the backstretch....only a horse person or a dye in the wool racing fan would understand it, but it's like at that very moment you're alive with excitement!  The smell of hay, the sound of horse shoes hitting the pavement, and the hustle and bustle of the grooms, hot walkers, trainers, and occasionally a few owners.  Jocks agents are wondering from barn to barn, trying to get their clients mounts, exercise rides, whatever they can, and the horses are on the move, to and from the track.  It's a world all of it's own.  When you're there, the outside world can't touch you.  You're on track time, and with your track family despite how rough around the edges some of them may be :)  The people along the backstretch are a colorful lot for sure, few would argue that, but most of them would give you the shirt off their back....even if they are holding an ice cold beer at 6:30 AM.  The stories....well, they're are plenty, and let me tell you what, the can provide a vast amount of entertainment...not to mention when you're having a bad day, they can make you feel a lot better about yourself.  No one really judges you there which is nice.  You can just be yourself.

On my first day back I was pumped to see that we were in the same barn as Jazz Napravnik.  I have a lot of respect for her and her sister so it's pretty neat to be working so closely to her.  Hoping that I can get to know her a little bit and see her farm.  And if I could catch a glimpse of Rosie it would be awesome!  We'll see.....everyone knows everyone there, so I'm sure they would think my being excited over this is silly.  Some of these people are like celebrities to me....  After watching a few horses work, the sun finally started to come up.  Hearing the thundering of hooves and seeing 3 horses running full out neck in neck is pretty exciting, even if it is just a workout.  These horses are tremendous athletes, even if they're not Derby contenders.  Right now there are about 13 horses in our barn.  Kieron is looking to get more, so it will be interesting to see if there are any new ones next week when I return.  After walking 2 big bays, one a colt, and the other a gelding nicknamed Jumbo (for good reason), we had a jockey coming to ride a big filly.  I was pretty excited when I saw it was Jeremy Rose (Preakness and Belmont  winner on Afleet Alex in 2005).  I wanted to badly to be that annoying person who asks for a picture, but I refrained.  They're there to work, not to sit around and chat with people.  Hoping I cross paths with him again....