Preakness

Ny Traffic (Cross Traffic), who exited an eighth-place finish in last Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby with a cut in his left front ankle, remains possible for the GI Preakness S. Oct. 3, according to Saffie Joseph Jr. "We got a couple cuts," said Joseph. "He has a staple in his ankle from a cut he got. It looks like he should be OK. Within seven to 10 days we'll decide. The main thing is the staple and when it gets taken out, how it's going to be." Ny Traffic also...

The Authentic (Into Mischief) who won the GI Haskell S. at Monmouth by a nose didn't look like a horse that could win the GI Kentucky Derby. Against a field decidedly weaker than what he would face seven weeks later at Churchill Downs, he nearly squandered a 2 1/2-length lead in the stretch and seemed to be running on fumes in the last few yards of the mile-and-an-eighth race. The mile-and-a-quarter loomed as a major obstacle. Even trainer Bob Baffert acknowledged that Authentic needed to take things to another level....

A day after picking up his record-tying sixth GI Kentucky Derby win in a renewal as unorthodox as they come, trainer Bob Baffert said victor Authentic (Into Mischief) "wasn't even tired" Sunday morning after going wire to wire and turning back odds-on Tiz the Law (Constitution) in Saturday's Run for the Roses. "I couldn't believe it, I thought he might be a little tired today," Baffert said. "He came out of it well." The triumph for Baffert was plenty unorthodox as well. After appearing to have a strangehold on the...

A nine-day Meadowlands-at-Monmouth Park meet will be added to the Thoroughbred racing calendar starting on Preakness Day, Saturday, Oct. 3, pending regulatory approval. Live racing will be held Oct. 3 and 4 at Monmouth Park and then every Wednesday and Saturday for the remainder of the month. There will also be a special Columbus Day holiday program Monday, Oct. 12. The Meadowlands-at-Monmouth meet will feature a stakes schedule totaling $900,000, highlighted by the GIII Monmouth S. at 1 1/8 miles on the turf Oct. 10. First race post time throughout...

Led by the 145th GI Preakness S., the G1 Irish Champion S. and G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, a total of 44 automatic berths into the 37th Breeders' Cup World Championships will be up for grabs over the next two months as Breeders' Cup Ltd. released its schedule of Breeders' Cup Challenge Series races for September and October. The Breeders' Cup Challenge, now in its 14th year, is an international series of stakes races whose winners receive automatic starting positions and fees paid for a corresponding race in...

Ed DeRosa of Brisnet.com takes on TDN's Steve Sherack and Brian DiDonato as they handicap Triple Crown prep races plus the big three races themselves. The three will make $100 Win/Place bets in the preps and $200 Win/Place bets in the Belmont, Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Highest bankroll at the end wins. DeRosa - Runhappy Santa Anita Derby Result - Honor A. P. got the money as the 2-1 second choice. Bankroll: $3215. GI Belmont S. - In retrospect, Tiz the Law paying around $5 in his last two starts...

Xtrema (Exaggerator) rallied to a convincing first-out score to give her freshman sire (by Curlin) his first winner while going out for the same connections that campaigned the 2016 GI Preakness S. hero. Breaking as the 21-10 second choice in a five-horse group, the $55,000 KEESEP grad tracked a speed duel from a distant third through a sharp :21.75 quarter. Appearing one-paced on the turn, the chestnut came alive entering the final furlong and blew past the tiring pace actors outside the sixteenth pole to score by four lengths over...

The Laurel Park summer race meet is a go, starting Saturday. A 28-date schedule was approved by a unanimous teleconference vote of the Maryland Racing Commission (MRC) at its Thursday meeting. After an initial Saturday-through-Monday, three-date opening spanning May 30-June 1, Fridays and Saturdays will be the primary live racing dates through Aug. 22 (a Monday, June 8, program is also scheduled, according to the Laurel calendar). Alan Rifkin, an attorney for the Maryland Jockey Club (MJC), which owns Laurel, explained to the commission the rationale behind scaling back to...

Fasig-Tipton and Ocala Breeders' Sales Company have come to an agreement to switch dates for the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale and OBS October Yearlings Sale. Fasig-Tipton's sale will now be held Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 5-6, in Timonium, Maryland to coincide with the rescheduled GI Preakness S. in nearby Baltimore. The sale had previously been scheduled for Oct. 12-13. OBS will now conduct its Selected Yearlings Sale Oct. 13 and its Open Yearlings Sale Oct. 14-15 at its Ocala, Florida facility. OBS's two yearlings sales were originally slated for...

Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association President Tim Keefe said it may be "unrealistic" for the local purse account to pay for the $1.5-million Preakness and the several stakes that are held in support of the Preakness. In a statement issued Tuesday, Keefe said he has become increasingly concerned about the amount of purse money that is available for racing at Pimlico and Laurel. There has been no racing in Maryland since Mar. 15, but the bigger problem is that the state's casinos also shut down on that date. According to Keefe,...

The GI Preakness S. will be run at Pimlico on Oct. 3, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced on NBC Saturday on what would have been Preakness Day under normal circumstances. The announcement confirmed a report from earlier in the week from WBAL, the NBC affiliate in Baltimore. With Churchill Downs having announced that the GI Kentucky Derby will be run Sept. 5, among the Triple Crown races, only the GI Belmont S. has yet to be scheduled. While NYRA officials have not made an official announcement regarding the timing of...

Churchill Downs Racetrack released a preliminary list of races Tuesday that could be used for the extension of the "Road to the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve," pending agreeable race placement by the host tracks. The first race in the extended series, the $150,000 GIII Matt Winn S. May 23 at Churchill Downs, will have top four points raised from the previously announced 10-4-2-1to 50-20-10-5. "Based on measured interest from horsemen and limited racing opportunities for 3-year-olds across the country, the Matt Winn at the home of the Kentucky...