Betty's Critters - & History Views

 On a muddy track at Pimlico, the 149th running of the Preakness Stakes was won by Seize the Grey - a colt sired by Arrogate, who has 2,750 owners.  The gray/roan colt is trained by D. Wayne Lukas (aged 88), who won the Preakness for the seventh time in his career - he has won 15 Triple Crown races so far.  It was the first graded stakes win for jockey Jaime Torres, a 25-year-old native of Puerto Rico.    Seize the Grey, out of Smart Shopping, is owned by My Racehorse, a micro-share partnership, with 2,750 owners, who purchased 5,000 shares of the colt for $127 per share.  He won $1,200,000 today for his owners.    Seize the Grey took the lead when the starting gate opened, and never looked back.  Imagination, the Bob Baffert trained colt, shadowed him for the first half-mile, then slowly faded.  Seize the Grey won by 2 and 1/4 lengths, followed by the Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan, who was a head in front of Catching Freedom, who led...

 The last time trainer D. Wayne Lukas won the Kentucky Oaks was 32 years ago.  He won in grand fashion today, bringing back memories of huge wins in hundreds of Stakes races.  D. Wayne Lukas is now 86 years old, and some people think this year may be his final hurrah in big stakes racing.  But his lightly raced chestnut filly, Secret Oath, a home-bred from family owned and operated Briland Farms, returned the Lukas family to the winners circle, along with the owners and breeders, Rob and Stacy Mitchell. D. Wayne Lukas and family in the Kentucky Oaks winners circle today.    It was an open secret that Echo Zulu, the favorite, was going to the front and try to lead the way all around the track.  But Yuugiri's trainer believed his filly could meet and break Echo Zulu and win on the front end, too.  Those two fillies ran a sizzling first quarter and half-mile and then started backing up.  Secret Oath was 5-wide on the final turn, powered her way ...