After the organizers of the Preakness banned infield patrons from bringing their own beer, attendance dropped by 31 percent. Who would have seen that coming? This year, the masterminds behind the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown are making amends. Sort of.

This year, infield admission has dropped by $10, to $40. And revelers can drink unlimited beer if they buy a 16-ounce mug for $20.

Organizers have also booked younger-skewing musical acts O.A.R. and the Zac Brown Band. –WaPo.

The mugs, and a new ad campaign, have revitalized ticket sales, but they’re still short of 2008′s attendance. And now they control the flow of alcohol as well, which is good for them. Plus, mugs don’t throw quite as well as cans of beer. But it’s safe to say that the fame Port-O-Potti runs are all but over. It’s too bad, because I was dying to lay down a Fat Guy Falls-Skinny Guy Gets Nailed In The Face-Dude In Flip Flops Falls Off trifecta. Read the rest of this entry »

The Kentucky Derby was on Saturday, despite inclement weather for most of the day. The Derby doesn’t seem like much of a sporting event as opposed to an excuse for women to dress ridiculously for something that only lasts two minutes. Ladies, if that’s what you’re looking for, I could last at least two and a half.

Anyway, Super Saver, one of four horses entered by Todd Pletcher, is your winner. It’s the third Derby in four years that the winning horse was mounted by noted jockey Calvin Borel. Don’t expect Borel to get any endorsements, though. The freaking horse did all the work.

Borel gave Super Saver a magnificent ride, guiding him along the rail for over a mile, saving ground all the way, before edging out slightly at the top of the stretch to take the lead. With 20 horses, the Derby can often be a bumpy affair, especially in the first turn. But Super Saver seemed to be running in a race of his own, clear of his competitors by several lengths either way. –Mark Beech/SI.com.

And then there was Glen Fullerton, who won a contest that gave him $100,000 to bet on any horse in the field. And obviously, nobody would give a damn about this story if Fullerton hadn’t picked Super Saver, at 9-1 odds. Nice work, Glen. Read the rest of this entry »

Rachel Alexandra (foreground, in yellow) was the first filly in 85 years to win the Preakness, holding off Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird by a length. But the odd thing is now that the lady horse–who sat out of the Derby–may not even enter the Belmont. From Y! Sports:

“I personally think she’s proven what [owner Jess Jackson] set out to prove with her immediately, which doesn’t eliminate anything,” [trainer Steve] Asmussen said. “But I think it does take a tad of the urgency off it.”

“We’ll wait for three or four days, see how she comes out of the race,” Jackson said. “Then we’ll give her the same scrutiny we did with the vets, and of course working her out, and get the opinion of everybody that’s involved.”

Since the horse was female, she was only paid 2/3 of the purse that they would have awarded a stallion. But at least the sexual advances in the starting gate were kept to a minimum. So much for progres…

I guess we should do a post on the Preakness, seeing as there’s been a bit of a hullabaloo about this lady horse being favored to win. But some people at the Louisville Courier-Whatzitcalled are worried that everyone’s gonna think of Eight Belles again if something TERRIBLE HAPPENS OH MY GAWD, NO! (via GameOn):

She’s not only the 8-5 Preakness morning-line favorite, she’s also instant adrenaline for horse racing, the next great thing to turn the heads of casual fans.

Unless …

Unless the tragic memories are stirred again about Eight Belles and Ruffian, who both suffered fatal injuries while running against colts.

Women. Can’t live with ‘em. Can’t hop on their backs and ride them for nine-and-a-half furlongs. Oh, yeah, I guess that’s an image of Sarah Jessica Parker there and not a horse. That’s an honest mistake on my part and I’ll fix it right away. Shortly. Maybe.

One of the great traditions in horse racing is coming to an end. Pimlico Race Course will no longer allow “race fans” to bring their own booze into the infield. From the New York Times (via 100 Percent Injury Rate):

“I’ve seen people get drilled by people randomly heaving cans of beer,” said Matt Schultz, 29, who lives in Baltimore and has been on the Pimlico infield for the Preakness the past four years. “I saw one girl literally get knocked to the ground by one.”

Organizers of the Preakness Stakes, the second event in horse racing’s Triple Crown, want a tamer experience on Saturday for the 134th running of the race. Fans can no longer bring their own beverages to the infield. Sixteen-ounce beers will be sold for $3.50, and they will come in plastic cups instead of unopened cans.

I get the safety issue, and $3.50 for a pint of beer isn’t a terrible price, but it’ll still be enough to price people out of spending an entire day there (and one would wonder what the point would be otherwise). But the people running these events need to realize how fun alcohol abuse can be. It’s as warming to the heart as a child’s laughter, provided that child is 27 years old with a 0.25 blood alcohol level.

Also resting in peace (hopefully): Wayman Tisdale. Sad. I guess.

An Australian jockey was suspended 18 months for handing off urine to another jockey to beat a drug test. Why are jockeys being tested for drugs? Does Australia just have a surplus of those little cups?

Queensland Racing Limited’s integrity counsel officer Allison Finlay, formerly with the Australian Crime Commission, told Halliday that Evans had conspired with jockey Donna Carrigg to deceive stewards by supplying an instrument containing his urine to be used as a substitution for hers.

That inquiry heard Carrigg was found by stewards to have in the arm of her riding jacket a tied condom filled with urine and containing a sharpened lollypop stick.

A lollipop stick? Just how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tinkle Pop? Sorry, I’m just so grossed out by this whole thing. The only appropriate place to pass that sort of thing is in a toilet or onto the face of a sexual partner receiving cash. Service with a stream, I like to call it.

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