Thursday morning jogs for Preakness favorites

Horseracing Betting Lines

05/13/2010 - Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thursday morning was a time for several of the Preakness starters, including the three favorites, to get acquainted with Pimlico Race Course. The only one of the 12 not at Pimlico is Schoolyard Dreams, who will arrive Friday.

Both of trainer Todd Pletcher's Preakness horses, Super Saver and Aikenite, visited the track Thursday morning. Both colts took a mile jog around Pimlico.

The colts shipped to Pimlico from Churchill Downs on Wednesday and Pletcher said they have settled into their new surroundings.

"We took him (Super Saver) out and gave him an easy jog once around the track," Pletcher said. "The track was sloppy and we weren't looking to do much, but I thought he handled everything really well. He had a good night; rested well and cleaned up his grain. His energy level is very good. It seems like he's shipped in as well as we could have hoped."

Pletcher said that his colts would go back to the track to gallop Friday morning: Aikenite at 6 a.m. (et) and Super Saver a half-hour later.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert sent out Lookin At Lucky for an easy 1 3/8- mile jog under exercise rider Dana Barnes Thursday morning. It was the first visit to the track at Pimlico for the beaten Kentucky Derby favorite.

"He went nice. He just sort of got a feel for it," Baffert said. "On a muddy track you can't really get a good grip of it, but he looked good. That's not the surface we're going to be running on. He got a good look at the track around there. When there [aren't] any horses training on it, it's sort of weird for him, but he took in all the sights pretty good. He went easy around there. We don't do much once we get here with him. He's doing well."

Paddy O'Prado, who finished third in the Kentucky Derby, showed good energy during his jog around the Pimlico track Thursday morning.

"He bounced out of the Derby as though he never ran," said trainer Dale Romans. "That's why we're here. We normally wouldn't wheel one back in two weeks."

The updated weather forecast for the Preakness calls for sunny skies and a post-time temperature near 75.

Post-time Saturday is 6:12 p.m. (et).

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.