Contenders

      For the third time in four years, the 43-year-old Cajun comes to Baltimore as a Kentucky Derby winner. A relative newcomer to Pimlico, he has been involved in two memorable runnings of the Preakness, finishing second with Derby winner Street Sense in 2007 and winning the 2009 renewal with filly Rachel Alexandra.

     Borel captured his second Derby in three years last May with Mine That Bird, whose $103.20 payoff was the second-largest in race history. He became the first jockey to ever take off a Derby winner to ride another horse in the Preakness; Mine That Bird ran second under Hall of Famer Mike Smith.

     A native of St. Martin Parish, La., Borel is the regular rider for Rachel Alexandra, the 2009 Horse of the Year who beat males three times in an undefeated eight-race campaign. Her record-setting romp in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks made Borel the seventh jockey to win the Oaks and Derby on the same weekend.

     Borel was just 8 when he began riding match races in Louisiana, and

      Having sent quality horses to the other two legs of the Triple Crown, WinStar comes to the Preakness for the first time represented by the Kentucky Derby winner.

     Texas residents Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt re-entered the racing game after a nearly two-decade absence as partners with Prestonwood Farm in 1998 Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop. Two years later, they bought the 1,450-acre property near Versailles, Ky. from brothers Art, Jack and J.R. Preston and renamed it WinStar.

     A native of El Paso, Texas, Casner galloped put himself through Tarleton State University by galloping thoroughbreds and later worked as a trainer before he and Troutt founded Excel Communications, a long-distance telephone service company, in 1979. Casner also owns B & R Equipment, a heavy equipment company. Troutt hails from Mt. Vernon, Ill. and formerly owned

     His Kentucky Derby drought over, the Texas native sets his sights on the Preakness, now the only Triple Crown race he has yet to win.

      An alumnus of the University of Arizona, Pletcher has also become the most successful graduate of Lukas Academy – one of many talented trainers to serve an apprenticeship under Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas.

     Pletcher, 42, began working for Lukas after earning his degree in Animal Science in 1989. He went out on his own in 1996, earning his first training victory with Majestic Number at Gulfstream Park in February of that year.

    Born in Dallas, Pletcher is the son of trainer Jake “J.J.” Pletcher. In 2009, the younger Pletcher won 238 races from 1,108 starters and ranked second nationally with purse earnings of $15,454,429. He was voted the Eclipse Award as top trainer four consecutive years, from 2004-07, and has trained eight horses to nine year-end championships: Ashado, English Channel, Fleet Indian, Lawyer Ron, Left Bank, Rags to Riches, Speightstown and Wait a While.

      Texas residents Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt re-entered the racing game after a nearly two-decade absence as partners with Prestonwood Farm in 1998 Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop. Two years later, they bought the 1,450-acre property near Versailles, Ky. from brothers Art, Jack and J.R. Preston and renamed it WinStar.

     A native of El Paso, Texas, Casner galloped put himself through Tarleton State University by galloping thoroughbreds and later worked as a trainer before he and Troutt founded Excel Communications, a long-distance telephone service company, in 1979. Casner also owns B & R Equipment, a heavy equipment company. Troutt hails from Mt. Vernon, Ill. and formerly owned Landview Farm in eastern Nebraska, selling it in 1982.

     Casner and Troutt met in the 1970s when they tried to claim the same horse at Ak-Sar-Ben in Omaha, Neb., and later

      Born and raised on the Bayou, where his father owned a bush track in Lafayette, La., it was on the Maryland circuit that Desormeaux, 40, rose to national prominence. He led the country in wins from 1987-89, and was voted the Eclipse Award as top apprentice with 450 wins, including a record 20 stakes, in 1987.

     Captured his second Eclipse with a record-setting 599-win season in 1989, and earned a third in 1992. He has won the Kentucky Derby three times and the Preakness twice, and took the first two jewels of the Triple Crown with Real Quiet in 1998 and Big Brown in 2008.

     In 2009, Desormeaux won the Belmont Stakes, Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup for the first time with eventual 3-year-old champion Summer Bird. He scored his 5,000th career victory on July 27, 2008 at Saratoga, and has won riding titles at seven tracks in California, Maryland and Japan.

      Nine members, eight of them from Des Moines, Iowa comprise the partnership, founded in 2008 by Jerry Crawford. The name is derived from the county in Ireland where Crawford’s ancestors lived.

     A partner in the law firm Crawford & Quilty, Crawford is also managing owner of Des Moines’ entry in the NBA Developmental League, the Iowa Energy.
The group put together $500,000 to purchase eight yearlings with the intent of finding a Kentucky Derby starter. Paddy O’Prado cost $105,000 at Keeneland’s September 2008 sale.

     Other partners are Gary Kirke Sr., Gary Kirke Jr., Peter De Coster, Dennis Allbaugh, Jason Loutsch, Judi Smith, George Cataldo and Dr. William Jacobson of Iowa, and Joe Savage of Boston.
 

      Born and raised in Louisville, Ky., where he still lives, the 43-year-old trainer grew up on the backside at Churchill Downs and worked as an assistant for his late father, Jerry before recording his first win in 1987 at Turfway Park.

     Romans has won several training titles at Churchill, Keeneland and Turfway Park. He has started two horses in the Kentucky Derby and one in the Belmont Stakes, but has never saddled a horse in the Preakness.

     Roses in May gave Romans his first Grade 1 victory, in the 2004 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Race Course, and went on to win the 2005 Dubai World Cup. He also trained Kitten’s Joy, the champion male turf horse of 2004 with Grade 1 wins in the Secretariat and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational. 

      Residents of Las Vegas, Joan Winchell and her son, Ron, created a partnership to continue the operation begun by her husband, the late Verne H. Winchell, Ron’s father. The elder Winchell, who died in 2002, founded the donut company Winchell’s and later served as CEO and chairman of Denny’s restaurants, breeding and racing champions Tight Spot and Mira Femme.

     Ron Winchell, 38, has a diverse business portfolio which includes gaming bars/restaurants, construction and real estate development. He and his 68-year-old mother own Corinthia Farm near Lexington, Ky., managed by David Fiske, who has worked for the family for more than 25 years.

     Among the graded stakes winners bred and/or raced by the Winchells are Tapit, War Echo, Hightap, Pyro, Summerly, Cuvee and Zanjero.
 

In his only previous Preakness mount, the 32-year-old Venezuelan rider won with Bernardini in 2006, which was overshadowed by the breakdown of Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro. Bernardini went on to capture the Jim Dandy, Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup and was named the top 3-year-old colt of 2006

Castellano moved to the U.S. in June 1997 and won his first career race the following month at Calder Race Course aboard Phone Man. He has been leading rider at Aqueduct’s fall, inner track and spring meets, as well as at Hialeah and Tropical-at-Calder.

Married to the daughter of Terry Meyocks, a former NYRA and NTRA executive who is now national director of the Jockeys’ Guild, Castellano rode 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper to wins in Tom Fool, Woodward and Breeders’ Cup Classic that year, as well as the 2003 Vosburgh and 2005 Met Mile.

Twice, Castellano has ridden five winners on a single card at Saratoga

While partnerships and syndicates have become the rage in thoroughbred racing, they can all pay homage to Wade Cothran “Cot” Campbell, who pioneered the idea more than four decades ago.

Campbell, who turns 83 in September, founded Dogwood in 1973 after selling Burton-Campbell, Inc., which he established and grew into one of the largest advertising agencies in the South, but he began syndicating horses in 1969.

Named for the plentiful trees in Georgia, where Campbell was living at the time, Dogwood is based in Aiken, S.C. and won with its first Preakness starter, the Neil Howard-trained Summer Squall, in 1990. The familiar yellow polka-dotted silks have only been back once since, when Impeachment ran third in 2000.

A native of New Orleans and U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, Campbell was introduced to the sport by his father, a Coca-Cola bottler who raised horses for a time. In addition to being an owner, Campbell has authored three books.

 An alumnus of the University of Arizona, Pletcher has also become the most successful graduate of Lukas Academy – one of many talented trainers to serve an apprenticeship under Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas.

 Pletcher, 42, began working for Lukas after earning his degree in Animal Science in 1989. He went out on his own in 1996, earning his first training victory with Majestic Number at Gulfstream Park in February of that year.

 Born and Dallas and living in Garden City, N.Y. with wife, Tracy, sons Payton and Kyle and daughter Hannah, Pletcher is the son of trainer Jake “J.J.” Pletcher, who now works as Ocala, Fla.-based farm trainer for Starlight Racing, a high-end thoroughbred partnership which uses the younger Pletcher as its primary conditioner.

 In 2009, Pletcher won 238 races from 1,108 starters and ranked second nationally with purse earnings of $15,454,429. He was voted the Eclipse Award as top trainer four consecutive years, from 2004-07, and has trained eight horses to nine year-end

 Joseph “J.D.” Bryant, 79, purchased property just north of Ocala in 1985 and founded the 100-acre farm with his wife, Phyllis. BryLynn is a combination of Bryant and Lynn, the middle name of his youngest daughter, Toni, who manages the farm with her husband, Bobby Jones, and partnered with her father in five mares in 1984, his introduction to the sport.

 Originally from Georgia, Bryant is a commercial and residential developer who previously worked as a partner in the Gorman Company, a wholesale plumbing, pool and well supply company based in Daytona Beach, Fla., his wife’s hometown. He retired after selling the company in 1995.

 BryLynn’s yearlings are prepped for sale at LynnDale Farm in Reddick, Fla., which is owned by Bobby and Toni Jones. BryLynn has bred stakes winners Knights Templar, Sweet Lips, Saint Marden, Kazoo, Spangled, Wildcat Annie, Running Debate and Ole Rebel.

     Born in Idaho and raised on Utah’s bush tracks, the 40-year-old Atkinson has been a Southern California regular since the early 1990s. He has never ridden in a Triple Crown or Breeders’ Cup race, though he did win aboard multiple stakes-winner Memo on the 2003 Breeders’ Cup undercard for Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella, who won four stakes that day, including two Breeders’ Cup races.
     Since he first galloped horses at the age of 15, Atkinson has ridden at tracks in Wyoming, New York, Texas, Arizona and Iowa as well as Hong Kong, where he finished second in the 1995 Hong Kong International Cup aboard Ventiquattrofogli. In 2000, he worked as an extra in the movie “Seabiscuit,” and years later was featured in a television commercial for Honda automobiles. He missed 10 months following a knee injury in October 2008.
     Atkinson and his wife, Ami, who works for Santa Anita, have two young daughters, Makenzie and Sarah.

      The partnership between retired 80-year-old businessman Don Blahut and trainer Mike Machowsky began shortly after Machowsky went out on his own in 1990. To date, their most successful runner has been Southern Image, winner of the 2004 Santa Anita Handicap, Sunshine Millions Classic and Pimlico Special.
     Originally from Kansas, Blahut moved to California and ultimately founded Collating House, a printing industry business that since 1971 has specialized in the assembly of books, calendars and documents. A resident of Newhall, Calif., he attended races during the 1970s with his wife, who passed away in 1986, as a way of maintaining his rural roots. This will be his first Preakness starter.
     Machowsky, 44, worked as an assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella for five years before taking out his training license in 1989. He picked up his first career winner, Bidadip, on New Year’s Day 1990 at Santa Anita.

      Born on Sept. 19, 1965 in Cincinnati, Machowsky can trace his equine interest back to his childhood, when his father, a military doctor, owned quarterhorses. He walked hots and mucked stalls for trainer Clay Brinson at 14, and worked two years as a groom for trainer Harry Moreno. From 1985-90, Machowsky served as stable foreman and assistant to Richard Mandella, and attended Mandella’s 2001 Hall of Fame induction in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
     Dancing Rhythm gave Machowsky his first graded stakes victory in the 1998 Senorita Stakes at Hollywood Park. He rose to prominence thanks to Southern Image, who won the Malibu Stakes on opening day of the 2003-04 Santa Anita meet, then captured back-to-back million-dollar races, the Santa Anita Handicap and Sunshine Millions Classic, as well as the Pimlico Special in 2004. He has never started a Preakness horse.
     Machowsky’s stable of 15 horses also includes Nextdoorneighbor, a 3-year-old Lido Palace colt who was seventh in the Grade 3 Sham at Santa Anita in March. Machowsky lives in

      Born on Sept. 19, 1965 in Cincinnati, Machowsky can trace his equine interest back to his childhood, when his father, a military doctor, owned quarterhorses. He walked hots and mucked stalls for trainer Clay Brinson at 14, and worked two years as a groom for trainer Harry Moreno. From 1985-90, Machowsky served as stable foreman and assistant to Richard Mandella, and attended Mandella’s 2001 Hall of Fame induction in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
     Dancing Rhythm gave Machowsky his first graded stakes victory in the 1998 Senorita Stakes at Hollywood Park. He rose to prominence thanks to Southern Image, who won the Malibu Stakes on opening day of the 2003-04 Santa Anita meet, then captured back-to-back million-dollar races, the Santa Anita Handicap and Sunshine Millions Classic, as well as the Pimlico Special in 2004. He has never started a Preakness horse.
     Machowsky’s stable of 15 horses also includes Nextdoorneighbor, a 3-year-old Lido Palace colt who was seventh in the Grade 3 Sham at Santa Anita in March. Machowsky lives in

      He came to the U.S. from France in 2003 to exercise horses for Patrick Biancone in California, but it wasn’t long before his riding ability made him the trainer’s first-call rider.

     Leparoux, 26, debuted at Saratoga Race Course in 2005, and won his first race that August aboard Easter Guardian. The following summer, he won 28 races at the nation’s oldest racetrack, the most ever by an apprentice jockey.

     In 2006, Leparoux led all jockeys with 403 wins and $12,491,316 in purses, both records for “bug” riders, earning him the Eclipse Award as top apprentice. He was the first apprentice to win riding titles at both Churchill Downs and Keeneland, and has also been leading rider at Turfway Park.

     Leparoux was voted his second Eclipse Award in 2009, winning 247 of 1,284 races and $18,560,565 in purses. He won three Breeders’ Cup races last fall at Santa Anita: the Juvenile Fillies with She Be Wild, Filly & Mare Sprint with Informed Decision, and Dirt Mile with Furthest Land.

     Racing was merely a hobby in the ‘70s and early ‘80s as the 74-year-old Ramsey worked as an executive for trucking and real estate companies before acquiring a string of cellular phone franchises. The business was valued at $39 million when the Ramseys sold it in 1993 and got back into the game after a short absence.

     Following the sale, the Ramseys purchased the former Almahurst Farm, 10 miles south of Lexington, Ky., near Nicholasville, and renamed it Ramsey Farm. Birthplace of 1918 Kentucky Derby winner Exterminator and standardbred legend Greyhound, it has expanded to cover more than 1,200 acres and is home to some 150 broodmares as well as stallions Kitten’s Joy and Catienus, who was moved to McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds for the 2010 breeding season.

      Both natives of Artemus, Ky., the Ramseys enjoy all levels of racing, from claiming and allowance horses to steeplechase and stakes runners. They campaigned Kitten’s Joy, the Eclipse

     The Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey of 1984 has successfully made the transition to training. Born March 3, 1968 in Selah, Wash., the son of trainer Dennis Ward and grandson of popular New York outrider Jim Dailey, he was a riding champion at Belmont Park, Aqueduct and The Meadowlands before retiring in 1989 due to difficulty maintaining weight.

     Based in California, Ward became the first American trainer to win at England’s prestigious Royal Ascot meet with 2-year-old Strike The Tiger in the 2009 Windsor Castle Stakes, and filly Jealous Again captured the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes the following day.

     Won 94 races and $2.2 million in purses from 360 starters in 2008, and had 81 wins and $2,057,875 in purses from 301 starters in 2009. Trained stakes winners Unfinished Symph and Bear Fan, and saddled One Hot Wish, who ran a world-record :48.87 for 4 ½ furlongs in her 2007 debut at Keeneland. He lives in Glendora, Calif. with wife Kimberly and children Riley, Jack and Denae.

     With breeding farms in Kentucky, Florida and Canada, Adena was North America’s leading breeder in purses earned for the seventh consecutive year in 2009, with $12,853,329. Owned by 77-year-old Frank Stronach, the founder and chairman of Toronto-based Magna International and chairman of Magna Entertainment Inc., Adena won Eclipse Awards as top breeder in 2000 and 2004-08, and top owner in 1998-2000 and 2008. He bred and owned 2000 Preakness winner Red Bullet.

     The operation is named for the Adena Indians, the earliest inhabitants of the Kentucky farm property. Stronach bought the initial property in 1989 and sold it in 2005 to California wine magnate Jess Jackson after purchasing more than 2,000 acres of a former cattle farm near Paris, Ky.

     Stronach/Adena has bred or raced more than 225 stakes winners and claims five year-end champions: Ghostzapper, 2004 top older male and Horse of the Year; Ginger Punch, 2007 top older female; Glorious Song, 1980

           His luck has been anything but good in the past two starts, where the bay son of Smart Strike ran into traffic trouble in both the Santa Anita Derby and Kentucky Derby.

 

     In California, Lookin at Lucky had to be steadied around the turn as the field approached the stretch and lost all momentum, but rallied late to finish third as the favorite. Favored again at Churchill Downs, he drew dreaded post one and was roughed up leaving the gate, dropping far back before closing on the outside to get up for sixth.
 

     Purchased as a 2-year-old in training last April for $475,000 at Keeneland’s spring sale, Lookin at Lucky won six of his first seven starts. He got bumped late but gathered himself to run second behind Vale of York in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
 

     He has run in graded stakes since breaking his maiden first time out, winning the Grade 2 Best Pal, Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, Grade 1 Norfolk, Grade 1 CashCall Futurity and Grade 2 Rebel, the latter on March 13 in his first try

      Chairman and CEO of Purchase, N.Y.-based National Realty and Development Corp., Baker is also a major owner of Lord & Taylor and Hudson Bay Trading Company of Canada. A Connecticut resident, he earned both a Bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctorate from Yale University, Baker has been involved in racing for more than 25 years, often in partnerships.

     Mack, a 60-year-old New Yorker, graduated from NYU and is founder and chairman of AREA Property Partners, which has invested in more than $50 billion of diversified real estate ventures in 25 countries. He also serves on the board of directors of Mack-Cali Realty Corp. and is principal owner of Lord & Taylor and Hudson Bay Trading Co.

     Baker and Mack, along with David Cornstein, hired trainer D. Wayne Lukas to buy some colts at the 2006 Keeneland yearling sales, one of which turned out to be multiple Grade 1 winner Grand Slam. They also campaigned stakes winners Scorpion and Proud Citizen.

      Since winning with his first Preakness starter, Codex, in 1980, the 74-year-old Hall of Famer has made Pimlico a regular stop on the Triple Crown trail.
No trainer has started more horses in the Preakness since 1909 than Lukas, who has sent 34 to the post in 23 trips to Baltimore. In addition to Codex, he won with Tank’s Prospect in 1985, Tabasco Cat in 1994, Timber Country in 1995, and Charismatic in 1999.

     Lukas grew up on a 10-acre farm a few miles from Antigo, Wisc., an agricultural community of about 8,600. A former high school and college basketball coach, he settled in California in 1972 and dominated the quarter-horse game until turning his full-time attention to thoroughbreds six years later.

     What has followed is a career unparalleled by any trainer in history. He pioneered the concept of maintaining strings at several tracks around the country, and has trained 24 horses to 29 year-end championships, including Horse of the Year in 1990 (Criminal Type), 1996 (Lady’s Secret) and

      In 1973, Blum burst onto the major racing scene when Life Cycle, a horse he bought for $1,400, defeated Hall of Famer Cougar II in Hollywood Invitational. Born in Far Rockaway, Long Island, Blum grew up in the same neighborhood as Life Cycle’s trainer, late Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel. At 17, he worked as a hotwalker at Belmont Park and bought his first horse while a student at the University of North Carolina.

     A real estate magnate, has bred and sold horses such as multiple Grade 1 winner Devil His Due and Irish champion Tomahawk. An avid baseball fan, he lives in Atlanta and has named horses for his friend, Braves general manager John Schuerholz.

      Blum owns 15-20 broodmares at Dilger’s Dromoland Farm in Lexington, Ky., which also acts as agent for Blum’s consignments to yearling sales. Founded in 1994, Dromoland has bred, raced or sold horses such as By the Light, Classic Cat, Griffinite, Multiple Choice, Ninth Inning, Proposal, Red Giant, Tomahawk and Wilko.

     One of the most successful riders to come out of Maryland, he has yet to win the state’s signature race, going 0-for-13. He has finished fourth four times (1998, 2002, 2004, 2007), and was aboard ill-fated Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro when he broke down in 2006.

     Prado, 42, came to the U.S. in 1986 after graduating from jockey school in his native Peru to work as a contract rider for Florida-based trainer Manny Azpurua. Soon, he moved to Maryland where he was leading rider from 1991-93 and 1996-97, and he led the country in wins from 1997-99, averaging 469. His 536 in 1997 made him the fourth rider in history to reach the 500 mark.

     In 1999, Prado moved to New York to ride full-time for trainer John Kimmel, replacing an injured Richard Migliore. He has won 10 individual meet titles on the NYRA circuit and led the state with 206 wins in 2005. On Feb. 10, 2008, Prado earned his 6,000th career victory aboard Sumphin at Gulfstream Park, and later that summer was inducted

           The partnership of Jim Riccio, Jeffrey Bonner and Frank Argano gets its name from the Grateful Dead record “Steal Your Face,” a live double-album released in June 1976. It is named in honor of Bonner’s late brother, Mike, who was a fan of the legendary music group.
 

            Riccio is in the school bus business, while Bonner and Argano work on Wall Street. Together, they have owned and bred horses for about 10 years at Hickory Hill Farm in Fort Edward, N.Y., a mare care and foaling facility located 20 minutes from Saratoga Race Course.
 

            Yawanna Twist is the first foal out of the stakes-winning mare Twist and Pop, who Riccio claimed for $22,000 and who earned $233,910. Ricco said the mare has also been bred to 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown.

      Two years ago, the middle son of late legendary Maryland trainer Dick Dutrow captured the second leg of the Triple Crown with Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown, who fell short of immortality three weeks later when he was eased across the finish line in the Belmont Stakes.

     Dutrow, 50, is 16 months younger than Tony Dutrow, who was pointing A Little Warm to the race. Only once in Preakness history have brothers trained different starters in the same year, Hirsch and Eugene Jacobs, who ran fourth and ninth, respectively, with Reason to Hail and Favorable Turn.

     Born in Hagerstown, Md., Rick Dutrow topped New York in wins in 2001, 2002 and 2005, and been leading trainer at Aqueduct 10 times and Belmont Park five times. He has trained three Eclipse Award winners: Big Brown, top 3-year-old male, 2008; Benny the Bull, top sprinter, 2008; and Saint Liam, Horse of the Year and top older male, 2005.

    In 1990, after his father moved back to Maryland from New York, Dutrow

    

      He has yet to ride his Preakness mount, but Coa is a proven commodity to trainer Derek Ryan after the two teamed up to finish third with Musket Man in last year’s race. Though it was his Preakness debut, Coa won the 2005 Pimlico Special with Eddington.

     The 39-year-old native of Monagas, Venezuela has been a leading rider at Aqueduct, Belmont Park, Calder, Gulfstream Park, Monmouth Park and Tropical-at-Calder. He has topped all New York riders in wins twice, becoming only the fourth to surpass 300 wins in a single season, with 303 in 2006.

     Coa was a five-time judo champion in Venezuela between the ages of 8 and 18 before he was introduced to racing by a friend. He attended jockey school in his native country from 1989-91 and began riding there in 1992. Coa first came to the U.S. in 1993 but returned home, moving to America full time in 1996.

     On Sept. 7, 1998, Coa tied a track

      Owner of a title insurance firm, EAM Land Services, in Syosset, New York, Fein paid $30,000 for his first horse, one that went on to earn $400,000. He has campaigned such stakes winners as Big Truck and Musket Man, back-to-back winners of the Tampa Bay Derby in 2008 and 2009. Euthanized following a March training accident in Florida, Big Truck was purchased in 2007 for $90,000 out of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training at Timonium Fairgrounds.

     A 62-year-old resident of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Mitola has owned horses for about five years. He also owns Hehasnosay, a 4-year-old Harlan’s Holiday colt with two wins from eight starts who was fourth in the Grade 3 Gotham in his 2009 debut.

      Brought his stable star, Musket Man, to Pimlico last year, running a strong third to eventual Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra in an historic Preakness. 

     The 43-year-old Ryan was born in Tipperary, Ireland, where he first rode ponies as a child. His travels as a horseman also took him to England, France and Germany before landing in the U.S. in 1989, where he worked as an exercise rider and assistant trainer in the East before going out on his own in 1996.

     Ryan has lived and worked at tracks in Florida, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. He scored his first major stakes victory with Emergency Status in the 2002 Grade 3 Jersey Derby and he won stakes with Bunker Hill, Call My Bluff and Allnightdance in 2008.

     Musket Man won five of his first six career starts, including the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby and Grade 2 Illinois Derby, finishing third in both the Preakness and Kentucky Derby.
 

     Originally from Texas, where he rode and trained quarter horses in high school and college, the 47-year-old Little is a practicing anesthesiologist who moved to Lexington, Ky. six years ago to be closer to his small breeding operation, which includes four mares and another two in partnership.

     Little also has three horses in training with his brother, Bill, at the HighPointe Farm and Training Center in LaGrange, Ky. At one time, the two siblings also pinhooked horses they bought in Arkansas, Texas and at Keeneland.

     Schoolyard Dreams comes from a crop of three out of the Prospector’s Music mare Hear This. The other one to start, Fist of Rage, won his debut at Keeneland last fall for trainer Ken McPeek before needing surgery to correct a breathing issue, and is on the comeback trail.

      One of the most popular jockeys at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. since his arrival in 2000, Thompson, 38, cruised to the 2009 riding title with 62 wins from 337 mounts, including a pair of six-figure stakes.

     A resident of Ankeny, Iowa, Thompson worked under Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg as a hotwalker, groom and exercise rider. Taking out his jockey’s license in 1993 at Turfway Park, he rode regularly in Kentucky before shifting his tack to Oaklawn and Prairie Meadows. He rode his 2,000th career winner at Oaklawn in 2007.

     In 2003, Thompson rode Sir Cherokee ($113.20) to an upset victory in the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby. He also won the Grade 1 Acorn at Belmont Park with Island Sand, was the regular rider for Sure Shot Biscuit, the only Iowa-bred to top $1 million in earning, and won a division of the Martha Washington Stakes on ill-fated filly Eight Belles.

     Thompson had never ridden in a Triple Crown race before Dublin’s seventh-place finish in the Kentucky

      Once part of the Dogwood Stable syndicate, Joe Ford and his son, Scott, formed Westrock with John McKay in 2008 to take on more responsibility in the industry. Since then, they have become major players in the sales market and campaigned Grade 3 winner Be Fair, who was fourth behind Rachel Alexandra in the 2009 Kentucky Oaks.

     Joe Ford graduated in 1959 from the University of Arkansas and went to work for Allied Telephone Company. Allied merged with Mid-Continent Telephone Corp. in 1983 to create the global communications giant Alltel, with Ford as its first president. He was named CEO in 1987 and became Chairman of the Board in 1991, and serves as vice-chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club.

     An accomplished rodeo team roper, Scott Ford also worked as president and CEO of Alltel. Father and son were part of the 2009 buyout by Verizon Communications.
 

      Since winning with his first Preakness starter, Codex, in 1980, the 74-year-old Hall of Famer has made Pimlico a regular stop on the Triple Crown trail.

     No trainer has started more horses in the Preakness since 1909 than Lukas, who has sent 34 to the post in 23 trips to Baltimore. In addition to Codex, he won with Tank’s Prospect in 1985, Tabasco Cat in 1994, Timber Country in 1995, and Charismatic in 1999.

     Lukas grew up on a 10-acre farm a few miles from Antigo, Wisc., an agricultural community of about 8,600. A former high school and college basketball coach, he settled in California in 1972 and dominated the quarter-horse game until turning his full-time attention to thoroughbreds six years later.

     What has followed is a career unparalleled by any trainer in history. He pioneered the concept of maintaining strings at several tracks around the country, and has trained 24 horses to 29 year-end championships, including

      Pikeville, Ky. native Frank Justice, 77, was a one-time restauranteur who founded Coal Mac in 1971 and sold the franchise to Ashland Coal in 1988. Ten years later, he bought the property formerly occupied by Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm near Lexington and entered the commercial breeding business. All of the farm’s produce is offered at Keeneland’s September yearling sale.

     Dell Ridge owns about 25 broodmares and boards around 45 more for clients. Justice has been involved in numerous racing partnerships, including stakes winners Della Francesca and Wiseman’s Ferry.

     Located near Versailles, Ky., Ashford is the American breeding arm of Ireland-based Coolmore Group, which is led by John Magnier. Coolmore acquired the property from founder Dr. William Lockridge and partners in the 1980s and expanded it from 465 acres to 2,000 acres. Managed by Dermot Ryan, Ashford counts Kentucky Derby winners Thunder Gulch and Fusaichi Pegasus among its stallions.
 

      The 44-year-old Hall of Fame jockey made history last May at Pimlico, inheriting the mount on Mine That Bird when Calvin Borel took off the Kentucky Derby winner to ride filly and eventual winner and Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra.

     Mine That Bird, who finished second, was Smith’s 11th Preakness starter; he won with Prairie Bayou in 1993. A native of Roswell, N.M., he began riding at the age of 16 in Santa Fe and went on to dominate New York racing in the early 1990s, finishing first in races won from 1991-93, winning Saratoga Race Course riding titles each of those years, and earning back-to-back Eclipse Awards as top jockey in 1993 and 1994.

     Smith was the regular rider for 1994 Horse of the Year Holy Bull, and has been aboard undefeated mare Zenyatta in each of her 16 career starts, including her historic victory in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic.
 

      His horses run in maroon and gold silks to honor Iona, where LaPenta graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. A Yonkers native, his introduction to owning racehorses came in a 1998 partnership with University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino.

     Operator of Stamford, Conn.-based L-1 Identity Solutions, a personal asset and identity protection company, LaPenta, 64, went out on his own in 2001 under the name Whitehorse Stables. He has run two horses in the Preakness: Stevil was fifth in 2008 and C P West was fourth in 2007.

     LaPenta has campaigned many stakes winners including War Pass, the champion 2-year-old male of 2007, and 2008 Belmont Stakes winner Da’ Tara.

     An 88-acre spread in Ocala, Fla., Jacks or Better Farm was established in 1997 by Midwestern transplants Fred

      As familiar a face as there is on the Triple Crown scene, the 62-year-old New Yorker has missed only four Preaknesses since his first, when Strike the Gold ran sixth in 1991. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where he now resides, in 2005, Zito won the 1996 Preakness with Louis Quatorze, snapping trainer D. Wayne Lukas’ Triple Crown winning streak at six races.

     His father exercised horses for late Hall of Fame trainer Max Hirsch, and as a teenager, Zito worked as a hotwalker and groom for trainer Buddy Jacobson. He later served under trainers Robert Lake, John Campo and LeRoy Jolley, recording his first win in December 1972 at old Liberty Bell racetrack.

     Zito has trained two Eclipse Award winners: Storm Song, the champion 2-year-old filly of 1996, and War Pass, top 2-year-old male of 2007. He won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes twice, and also owns a pair of Pimlico Special wins, in 1992 with Strike the Gold and 1996 with Star Standard.

      An 88-acre spread in Ocala, Fla., Jacks or Better Farm was established in 1997 by Midwestern transplants Fred and Jane Brei. Born in Poplar Grove, Ill., Fred Brei, 67, was founder and CEO of the Canterbury Corp., a long-term retirement facility he sold in 1995 before moving to Florida. His wife, 65, is a retired registered nurse.

     Named Florida’s top small breeder in 2001 and 2004, they have campaigned multiple stakes winners Radical Riley and Hear No Evil, the millionaire sire of Jackson Bend.
 

      Trainer Bob Baffert gave the 25-year-old native of Veracruz, Mexico the mount on Lookin at Lucky for the Preakness, replacing Garrett Gomez, who had been aboard for each of the colt’s nine career starts.

     Garcia has stepped in for Gomez before, getting the call on Conveyance in the Grade 3 Southwest on Feb. 20, and going gate-to-wire to win by three-quarters of a length over Dublin. He kept the call in the Grade 3 Sunland Derby, finishing second as the favorite, and the Kentucky Derby, setting a fast pace before tiring to 15th.

     Garcia came to the U.S. in 2003 and went to work at a deli where the owner introduced him to former jockey Mark Hanna, who helped get him started galloping horses. Six months later, he began riding at Golden Gate Fields, and earned his first victory aboard Wild Daydreamer at the Bay Meadows Fair in August 2005.

     Upon moving his tack to southern California, Garcia finished in the top five at his first Hollywood Park meet in 2006.

      At Pegram’s suggestion, Watson and Weitman joined him in buying thoroughbreds. Their first purchase was Midnight Lute, a massive horse who won back-to-back Breeders’ Cup Sprint race and the 2007 Eclipse Award as champion sprinter.

     Pegram, 58, owns 22 McDonald’s restaurant franchises in Arizona as well as Bodine’s Casino in Carson, Nev. He got into ownership of quarterhorses with his father before meeting trainer Bob Baffert and switching to thoroughbreds in 1988. He has had numerous major and multiple stakes winners, including the filly Silverbulletday, inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2009, 1998 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Real Quiet, and 2001 Dubai World Cup winner Captain Steve.

     Watson, 59, and Weitman, 67, own a string of automobile dealerships in Tucson, Ariz. Watson left

      He burst onto the national racing scene with Cavonnier in 1996, and the silver-haired native of Nogales, Ariz. has rarely been out of the spotlight, or at a loss for words, since.
Baffert, 57, was born on a cattle ranch and dreamed of becoming a jockey, winning 30 races before having trouble maintaining his weight. He enrolled at the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program and soon began training quarterhorses until convinced to give thoroughbreds a try by owners Mike Pegram and Hal Earnhardt in 1991.
In the years that followed, Baffert trained 10 horses to 13 year-end championships, including 2001 Horse of the Year Point Given; won the Eclipse Award as top trainer three times (1997-99); led all trainers in purse earnings four times (1998-2001) and was inducted in the Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. in 2009.

     Baffert swept the first two legs of the Triple Crown with Silver Charm in 1997, Real Quiet in 1998 and War Emblem in 2002, but failed to win the Belmont Stakes. He also won the 2001 Preakness, Belmont, Haskell and

      Based in Ocala, Fla., the operation is owned and run by Jerry Bailey and Lance Robinson. Bailey and his wife oversee the farm, where they raise and break yearlings, while Robinson handles the breeding aspect of the business.

     Bailey graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in veterinary medicine, and practiced in Florida and Oklahoma before forming a pinhooking partnership with Ken Ellenberg, having had success with horses like Henny Hughes, Kensei, Thunder Gulch and Yes It’s True.
 

      Since moving his tack full-time from Delaware Park to New York last winter, the 33-year-old Venezuelan has dominated the NYRA circuit, sweeping every association meet in 2009.

     Born Nov. 24, 1976, Dominguez is coming off his eighth consecutive NYRA meet championship, posting 27 winners during Aqueduct’s 19-day spring session that ended April 25. He was previously leading rider at Aqueduct’s 2008-09 inner track meet (124 wins), followed by Aqueduct spring (29), Belmont Park spring-summer (98), Saratoga (45), Belmont fall (39) and Aqueduct fall (38) in 2009, and the 2009-2010 Aqueduct inner track (109).

     Dominguez led New York with 367 wins last year, the most since Steve Cauthen won 433 in 1977. He was second nationally with 391 wins from 1,651 starters, and $18,348,422 in purse earnings in 2009.

     Against the wishes of his father, Dominguez began riding horses at the age of 16, and by 18 he was riding full-

     While on a football scholarship at Eastern Kentucky University, Donald Dizney became interested in Thoroughbreds, attending the races at nearby Keeneland Race Course and following the career of Florida-bred champion Carry Back as he captured the 1961 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

     Dizney went on to pursue a successful career in the medical field, and by 1983 the hospital-industry executive was finally in a position to get involved with the sport that had fascinated him for so many years. To that end, he bought his first horses and founded the now-550 acre Double Diamond Farm in Ocala.

     Dizney has since become a high-profile member of the North American Thoroughbred industry. He is a steward of the Jockey Club and has served on boards for the NTRA, Breeders’ Cup Ltd., and TOBA. Dizney has also been a multi-term president of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association and was instrumental in

      Born and raised in Louisville, Ky., where he still lives, the 43-year-old trainer grew up on the backside at Churchill Downs and worked as an assistant for his late father, Jerry before recording his first win in 1987 at Turfway Park.

     Romans has won several training titles at Churchill, Keeneland and Turfway Park. He has started two horses in the Kentucky Derby and one in the Belmont Stakes, but has never saddled a horse in the Preakness.

    Roses in May gave Romans his first Grade 1 victory, in the 2004 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Race Course, and went on to win the 2005 Dubai World Cup. He also trained Kitten’s Joy, the champion male turf horse of 2004 with Grade 1 wins in the Secretariat and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational.
 

     While on a football scholarship at Eastern Kentucky University, Donald Dizney became interested in Thoroughbreds, attending the races at nearby Keeneland Race Course and following the career of Florida-bred champion Carry Back as he captured the 1961 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

     Dizney went on to pursue a successful career in the medical field, and by 1983 the hospital-industry executive was finally in a position to get involved with the sport that had fascinated him for so many years. To that end, he bought his first horses and founded the now-550 acre Double Diamond Farm in Ocala.

     Dizney has since become a high-profile member of the North American Thoroughbred industry. He is a steward of the Jockey Club and has served on boards for the NTRA, Breeders’ Cup Ltd., and TOBA. Dizney has also been a multi-term president of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association and was instrumental

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