Racing

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 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.

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.

For the first time, L.A. Unified and other individual school districts can apply for federal Race to the Top grants, bypassing California officials, including the governor, who had objected to the rules for receiving the education-reform incentives. The draft rules, announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education, will allow school systems to vie for funds that had been unavailable to any state that was unable or unwilling to compete for the grants. "We're wide open to new strategies, new approaches," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a conference call.

Mary Elizabeth Florsheim Bradley, a prominent figure in Thoroughbred racing in Southern California and the daughter of a well-known Chicago shoe businessman, died Feb. 5 of natural causes at her home in Rancho Santa Fe, her family said. She was 90. With trainer Charlie Whittingham and jockey Bill Shoemaker, Bradley was the owner of several major stakes winners in the 1970s and '80s. Her best-known horse, Cougar II, won an Eclipse Award in 1972 as champion turf horse and captured the Santa Anita Handicap in 1973.

They had colorful nicknames like "The Mongoose" and "The Snake," initially raced mostly for glory in light of skimpy prize money and became legends as professional drag racing's popularity expanded nationwide. As the National Hot Rod Assn. holds the 50th anniversary of the Winternationals this week, here's a look at some of drag racing's most notable drivers over the decades in the premier top-fuel and funny car classes, some of whom will appear to help celebrate this year's Winternationals in Pomona: 1960s "Big Daddy" Don Garlits In the Winternationals' first 10 years, and for decades after that, Garlits was the driver even casual fans knew as being synonymous with drag racing.

Because of ongoing reductions to The Times Sports staff and space for news in the Sports section, the handicap charts and results from Del Mar will not be included in the daily sports report. There will be coverage of major events during the seven-week meeting. In addition, other weekly features that have been eliminated are the Gearing Up package on motor racing, Teeing Off on golf and Corner Kicks on soccer.

Re "Horse Racing Is Having a Breakdown," Aug. 5 The problem with racing 3-year-old horses is racing 3-year-old horses, not the footing. The horse-racing people have been fooling themselves, saying it's OK to push an animal to its maximum, before its bones are fully developed; any serious, informed horse person could tell you that that is a dangerous gamble. Horse racing is tantamount to cock fighting, but Hollywood and the rich have glamorized the one and not the other. Harrumph! Footing indeed!

The racing industry was handed a gift from God via the Belmont Stakes in the filly Rags To Riches. Her performance was remarkable and one for the ages. Many have written that racing needs a star to become the people's horse and assumed that star would come from having won the Triple Crown. Rags To Riches raced in only one leg, but Barbaro's Kentucky Derby had nothing on her Belmont. If Barbaro captured America's imagination last year and left it wondering what-if because of his demise, she certainly should have exclusivity to that imagination now. The thoroughbred racing industry has no excuse now for declining attendance numbers.

Sunday of Memorial Day weekend is like Christmas for gearheads and a day many casual fans also turn their eyes toward some of motor racing's most popular events. The day kicks off with the Grand Prix of Monaco, where Formula One drivers maneuver through the streets of picturesque Monte Carlo. Sebastian Vettel of the Red Bull Racing team has won the F1 championship the last two years, but there have been five different winners (including Vettel) in the first five races this season.

CAIRO - The race for Egypt's president is tightening as a surge by a former prime minister has raised fresh conspiracy theories that remnants of deposed leader Hosni Mubarak's regime are angling for power. The first round of voting begins Wednesday, but many Egyptians are still undecided in what is largely a contest between Islamists and two men connected to the old regime. The drama has been intensified by a last-minute swell in popularity for Ahmed Shafik, a retired air force general appointed prime minister in the weeks before Mubarak's government fell last year.

DALLAS -- Anna Tunnicliffe was born and raised in England. And she has the British accent to prove it. "With certain words it comes out," she acknowledged. But that does not, she insists, make this summer's Olympic Games a homecoming. "I'm American," said Tunnicliffe, who became a U.S. citizen in 2003 and an Olympic gold medalist five years later. "I've spent more than half my life in America. I'm going to England to compete. "I love the country. But no, I'm not going home.

Robert Gesink, a Dutchman who rides for the Rabobank team, won the Amgen Tour of California on Sunday, confirming his place on top that he had earned by climbing fast up Mt. Baldy on Saturday. The win was emotional for the 25-year-old, who grew up on a farm and learned to love cycling from his father, Dick, who was killed in a mountain bike crash two years ago. Father and son loved coming to California, Gesink said. Peter Sagan of Slovakia, who rides for the Italian-based Liquigas-Cannondale team, won his fifth stage of the eight-stage race Sunday, edging out crowd favorite Tom Boonen, the big Belgian sprint specialist who rides for the Omega Pharma-Quick-Step cycling team, for the win in the 42.6-mile road race between Beverly Hills and L.A. Live on Sunday.

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.

The United States has reached a historic tipping point, with children born to Latino, Asian, African American and mixed-race parents now constituting a majority of all births, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. The long-expected demographic shift is considered a milestone for the nation, though one that California passed three decades ago when births to racial and ethnic minorities surpassed those to white parents. The new report shows that minorities accounted for about 2 million, or 50.4%, of U.S. births in the 12 months ending July 1 of last year.

From high up in the Directors' Room at Santa Anita Park last Sunday, horse owners and their guests spent the afternoon enjoying the races. It was opening weekend of the 75th racing season at the historic racetrack. "Especially on a day in the winter, after it snows and you see the snow-capped mountains, there's no better place to be than here," Mike Harlow, director of racing, said. He said the Directors' Room, which is primarily for use by VIPs and owners of horses in the featured races, has remained virtually unchanged since the Art Deco facility opened in 1934, after costing a then-unheard-of $1 million for the land and construction.

It seemed a star-studded marriage: James Stewart, a three-time champion of off-road motorcycle racing, signed a multiyear contract with the Yamaha motorcycle team of Joe Gibbs Racing of NASCAR fame. The plan also was for Gibbs to provide a path for Stewart to pursue his goal of becoming a NASCAR stock car driver when his motorcycle days were over. But only seven months after announcing their union, Stewart and Gibbs recently parted ways and Stewart has signed with a new team, Yoshimura Suzuki, for both motocross and supercross.