Horses

Bob Baffert and Wayne Lukas were sitting next to each other at a recent racing function when Baffert said to Lukas, "Everyone used to hate you. Now they hate me." It's as clear as a giant flowered hat, and just as ugly. At rowdy Churchill Downs today, the only thing more quietly despised than Bob Baffert will be a Breathalyzer. The 128th Kentucky Derby will feature 19 horses, 150,000 fans, and one villain. Baffert will saddle longshot War Emblem.

The bizarre and complicated world of thoroughbred blood testing and sanctions reached the mainstream Thursday, when the California Horse Racing Board penalized the trainer who has won the first two legs of the sport's Triple Crown. The seven-person, governor-appointed board, ruling on a case that has been argued and litigated since the summer of 2010, suspended Doug O'Neill for 45 days and fined him $15,000. The penalty actually carried an additional 135 days of suspension, but that will be voided if there are no further findings involving O'Neill in the next 18 months.

J. Paul Reddam might not be the type of businessman for whom people suffering through the recession can bring themselves to root. Reddam, 56, is president of Anaheim-based CashCall, the mortgage refinancing and high-interest personal loan company who critics say has unfairly capitalized upon people's financial woes during the country's economic and employment crisis. But the Sunset Beach resident is also owner of Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another, who could provide horse racing with a huge shot in the arm Saturday with a victory in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

The fate of trainer Doug O'Neill, charged by California Horse Racing Board enforcement officials with a substance abuse violation involving one of his horses, will be addressed Thursday morning at a board meeting at Hollywood Park. These are usually low-profile procedural meetings, but the item on the agenda involving O'Neill, whose I'll Have Another will take a run at racing's coveted Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes June 9, has triggered much interest and speculation. Racing's enforcement officials ruled that an O'Neill-trained horse, Argenta, tested positive for high levels of carbon dioxide after a race Aug. 25, 2010, at Del Mar. High levels of carbon dioxide are considered evidence of the use of a "milkshake" to illegally boost a horse's stamina.

It won't be a race, it'll be a parade. A recital. A concerto. Who are these horses, and don't they know nobody will remember who they were a year from today? A week from today? They came here to be in the chorus. They should have brought a spear to carry. They're just the posse here. What are all these trainers who should know better doing in this Kentucky Derby? Can't they read? Don't their clocks work? Let me ask you something. If Man o' War were in this field, would there be 15 other horses willing to go out there to watch him go by?

What started as a community debate over how many horses were too many for Orange Park Acres residents apparently turned into a potential countywide cap of eight per acre Wednesday as the Orange County Planning Commission voted to tighten restrictions on horse keeping in unincorporated areas.

Katie Fitzgerald, a little girl with glasses from Lewisville, N.C., was at Bob Baffert's barn at Churchill Downs, hoping to meet the trainer of Point Given and Congaree, the favorites in today's Kentucky Derby. Baffert obliged, breaking from his busy schedule. Katie, 9, suffers from acute lymphocytic leukemia, and is here because the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted her wish to attend the Kentucky Derby.

An instinctive trainer, Bob Baffert likes to take a horse by a lead shank and walk it around the shedrow of the barn. "It's a way that I can tell where I am with a horse," Baffert said. "I can gauge how a horse is feeling. When a horse is feeling good, you can sense that, a lot like the tension a fisherman feels on his line when he hooks something." In 1996, Baffert's baptismal year at the Kentucky Derby, he almost won the race with Cavonnier, who was nosed out at the wire by Grindstone.

Horses died while racing at Santa Anita Park at more than double the rate of horses at the state's other three major thoroughbred tracks over the last fiscal year, according to state statistics. The fatality rate at Santa Anita, in Arcadia, rose significantly after a return to a dirt running surface in 2010 after three years of using a synthetic track, the data show. Track surfaces are one of several factors that experts say play a role in horses' deaths — a longtime bane of the racing industry.

His groom beckoned, and Easy Goer came running with the stride and grace that made him a champion. Then he died. The 2-year-old champion of 1988, remembered for an intense rivalry with Sunday Silence, died Thursday in Paris, Ky. He was 8. "His groom was showing some people around on a tour," Shug McGaughey, who trained Easy Goer for Ogden Phipps in 1988-89, said from his home in Garden City, N.Y. "He whistled for him and he came running down. He put a shank on him and let him out of the paddock.

My Friend Malea Jillian , 9 Magic Pen Kids Laguna Hills Malea's hair is russet brown, the color of fresh potatoes. It falls in curls to her shoulders like Ruffle chips. Her laugh makes me feel silly - like clown pants on a summer day. Two caramel chocolates are her eyes. Her hair is scented with vermillion flowers. She is courage. Blossom on a Spring Afternoon Madison, 11 Meadows Elementary Valencia   When I retire outside on a spring afternoon, I watch that blossom and how it will bloom - pink and yellow, its stem straight.

It was the end of a long day in a stuffy Simi Valley office building. Ann Romney had been under oath for more than four hours, testifying in a sometimes contentious deposition about a pricey horse she sold that may or may not have been afflicted with a condition that made him unrideable. In the airless room, Romney was getting annoyed. "That really is -- that really is irritating," she said when the opposing attorney implied she didn't know who looked after her horse in Moorpark when she was at her home in Boston.

BALTIMORE -- The amazing story moved up to incredible. I'll Have Another ran true to his name. On a Saturday that brought blue skies, perfect temperatures and a record crowd of 121,309 here at venerable Pimlico racetrack, the horse who has never been favored in a race and has been mostly under-appreciated by the public, even the racing public, won the 137th Preakness. Now, it is I'll Have Another who will take a shot at history. The last horse to win the Triple Crown was Affirmed in 1978.

BALTIMORE -- Triple Crown horse racing season is a respite. It allows a deep breath for a sport that is desperately seeking reason. The Preakness is similar to pro golf's Saturday. They call it moving day, because it is the last chance to get in position for the big prize. The difference is that, when 11 horses load into the gate here Saturday afternoon, only one can land the big prize, the Triple Crown. That one, Kentucky Derby winnerI'll Have Another, is not only a horse to be admired, but a story with lots of weird chapters.

Peter Fuller, who never fully accepted the ruling that stripped the 1968 Kentucky Derby crown from his thoroughbred Dancer's Image, died Monday of cancer at a skilled-care facility in Portsmouth, N.H., his family said. He was 89. In May 1968, Dancer's Image rallied from last place in a field of 14 to win the Derby by a length and a half. Days later, traces of the drug phenylbutazone were found in the horse's post-race urinalysis, and the colt was disqualified. The medication is commonly used to alleviate chronic pain and joint soreness, not to enhance performance.

J. Paul Reddam might not be the type of businessman for whom people suffering through the recession can bring themselves to root. Reddam, 56, is president of Anaheim-based CashCall, the mortgage refinancing and high-interest personal loan company who critics say has unfairly capitalized upon people's financial woes during the country's economic and employment crisis. But the Sunset Beach resident is also owner of Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another, who could provide horse racing with a huge shot in the arm Saturday with a victory in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

When Steve Valdez weighed himself in 1982, he felt more like a horse than a jockey. Valdez tipped the scales at 153 pounds, 43 pounds more than he had weighed during those promising days when he was 17. A jockey who weighs 153 does not get much work. While at his heaviest, Valdez was an assistant starter with the gate crew at Los Alamitos. He kept telling people he would be back again as a jockey, and it came to be considered a joke. However, Valdez is getting the last laugh nowadays.

Capsized pranced nervously but entered the gate calmly, fourth from the rail for the 62nd running of the Santa Anita Derby. Sitting lightly upon Capsized, 113-pound Alex Solis felt his adrenaline pumping. Just before the gate burst open, there was a split second of stillness that exploded into the cacophony of charging horses and shouting jockeys. Hooves pounded. Dirt flew. Eight horses surged forward, with High Wire Act and Honest Lady pressing to the front.

BALTIMORE — In the midst of the greatest time of his professional life, horse trainer Doug O'Neill is being followed around by an asterisk. Reporters want to know about his Kentucky Derby-winning horse, I'll Have Another. They want to know about O'Neill himself — how he got started, who he is, what he thinks about any number of topics. They want to know about young jockey Mario Gutierrez, who should have been way too green to ride the kind of race he did at Churchill Downs. They want to know about owner J. Paul Reddam, who made his money in the loan business and who named the horse by reprising a scene at home, where he sits on the couch, eats a cookie and requests another one from his wife.

If you know anything at all about Del Mar, it's that the seaside town north of San Diego is the place to play the ponies. The horses aren't the only thoroughbreds in the track's history; you'll hear it connected to such names as Bing Crosby, W.C. Fields, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, jockey Willie Shoemaker and, my favorite, Seabiscuit. But I'd encourage a Del Mar visit any time except the July 18-Sept. 5 racing season, just for the peace and quiet. The bed. I was here for a family wedding at L'Auberge del Mar Resort & Spa (1540 Camino del Mar; [800]