As the former CEO of Pimlico and Laurel racetracks in Maryland and the current chairman of The Humane Society of the United States' National Horse Racing Advisory Council, what happens in horse racing and to horses is an extremely important issue to me.

In recent years, racing has witnessed equine injuries that are tied to performance enhancing...Read more

BALTIMORE - Trainer Kenny McPeak wasn't sure he wanted to put Swiss Skydiver in the Preakness Stakes.

If there had been a Grade 1 stakes for 3-year-old fillies at the same juncture of the calendar, he probably would not have.

But McPeak has ducked no challenges this year, racing Swiss Skydiver in Florida, Louisiana, California, Arkansas, ...Read more

BALTIMORE - Her year began in Florida, then wound through Louisiana, Arkansas, California, Kentucky and New York.

Name a state that's held a major horse race this year, and Swiss Skydiver has probably run there. No matter what trainer Kenny McPeek has thrown at her, she seems undaunted.

"She likes to run, she likes to train and she likes to ...Read more

BALTIMORE - There's no Triple Crown on the line Saturday with the 145th Preakness at Pimlico, but there's still plenty at stake.

There's an impending validation of the Kentucky Derby upset by Authentic, who figures as part of a front-running phalanx in a race with considerably more pace.

There's the legacy of Bob Baffert, who could stand all ...Read more

Bob Baffert had run in the Kentucky Derby 19 times previously, and had won it five times, but the lead-up to this year's race, he said, felt different. How could it not? The Derby was being run four months after it was originally scheduled, owing to a pandemic, in a city riven by the police killing of a woman in her home months earlier.

"It ...Read more

The way trainer Bob Baffert tells it, if Kentucky Derby winner Authentic wins the 145th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, he'll have won the first two legs of the Triple Crown.

Never mind the shortened version of the Belmont Stakes that was run in late June. There is a new Triple Crown, in his opinion, at least for this year.

"The ...Read more

The way trainer Bob Baffert tells it, if Kentucky Derby winner Authentic wins the 145th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, he'll have won the first two legs of the Triple Crown.

Never mind the shortened version of the Belmont Stakes that was run in late June. There is a new Triple Crown, in his opinion, at least for this year.

"The ...Read more

Bob Baffert had run in the Kentucky Derby 19 times previously, and had won it five times, but the lead-up to this year's race, he said, felt different. How could it not? The Derby was being run four months after it was originally scheduled, owing to a pandemic, in a city riven by the police killing of a woman in her home months earlier.

"It ...Read more

BALTIMORE - Her year began in Florida, then wound through Louisiana, Arkansas, California, Kentucky and New York.

Name a state that's held a major horse race this year, and Swiss Skydiver has probably run there. No matter what trainer Kenny McPeek has thrown at her, she seems undaunted.

"She likes to run, she likes to train and she likes to ...Read more

BALTIMORE - There's no Triple Crown on the line Saturday with the 145th Preakness at Pimlico, but there's still plenty at stake.

There's an impending validation of the Kentucky Derby upset by Authentic, who figures as part of a front-running phalanx in a race with considerably more pace.

There's the legacy of Bob Baffert, who could stand all ...Read more

Authentic comes into Saturday's Preakness Stakes - the final leg of this unorthodox Triple Crown - fresh off a decisive Kentucky Derby victory and with no challenge from his top rival in that race.

Belmont Stakes winner and beaten Derby favorite Tiz the Law is looking forward to the Breeders' Cup Classic next month, but the Bob Baffert-trained ...Read more

ARCADIA, Calif. - A group of jockeys gathered in the paddock garden at Santa Anita on Sunday morning, awaiting their mounts for the next session of workouts. A single subject dominated conversation - new whip rules that take effect this week at California tracks.

The centuries-old style of striking a horse with a full-arm motion was banned ...Read more

Brian Hernandez Jr. is usually in the right spot, but on Kentucky Derby Day, through no fault of his own, he had a tough trip. Earlier in the week, his Derby mount, Art Collector, had to be scratched from the race with a minor hoof injury, depriving Hernandez of what would have been his best chance yet to win the Derby.

And then on Derby Day, ...Read more

Aside from missing the loud roar of the crowd, veteran jockey Mike Smith has had no trouble staying locked in the minute he finds himself at the gate for a big race these days.

As for the other minutes throughout the days since the coronavirus pandemic began, nothing has been normal for Smith and jockeys from all over the country.

From the ...Read more

National legislation designed to standardize medication and safety protocols in horse racing passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support Tuesday. A form of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act has been around since 2015, but it never had the traction to make it onto the House floor until this year.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky...Read more

BALTIMORE - Owners of horses in the Preakness Stakes and limited guests will be permitted at Saturday's race after Gov. Larry Hogan issued an order raising spectator capacities at Maryland's racetracks to 250.

General fans will not be allowed at the Preakness, said Dave Joseph, a spokesman for The Stronach Group, which owns and operates Pimlico...Read more

Coming off his upset victory over Tiz the Law in the Kentucky Derby, Authentic will go into Saturday's Preakness Stakes as a 9-5 favorite in the morning line with a chance to make history for trainer Bob Baffert.

If Authentic finishes at the head of an 11-horse field at Pimlico Race Course, he'll give Baffert his eighth Preakness victory, which...Read more

Sorrow filled the voice of Samuel I. "Sandy" Rosenberg as he thought ahead to a Preakness day devoid of fellowship.

Before Rosenberg was a state delegate representing a district that includes Pimlico Race Course, he was a neighborhood kid who watched the Preakness from the home of his buddy Jay Slater, just across Rogers Avenue from the top of ...Read more

BALTIMORE - The 145th running of the Preakness Stakes will be defined by absence - no third Saturday in May, no crowd, no Triple Crown on the line.

When Belmont Stakes champion Tiz the Law went off as a heavy favorite in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, he carried with him hopes for a potential Triple Crown coronation in Baltimore. It would have ...Read more