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Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom is through racing this year after being diagnosed with a slab fracture in his left hock, it was announced Wednesday by Barry Irwin, who heads the Team Valor International partnership that owns the colt.

Preakness winner Shackleford has been sent to WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky., for a two-week break before gearing back up for a run in the $1 million Haskell Invitational on July 31 at Monmouth Park, said trainer Dale Romans.

Velazquez said the colt recoiled a bit from the dirt hitting him in the face and chest during the early stages and might have momentarily lost the focus required to stay closer.

It isn't that Animal Kingdom can't handle crowds and chaos. By winning the 137th Kentucky Derby amid all its sound and fury, the colt surely demonstrated certain degrees of resilience and adaptability.

Kentucky Derby runner-up Nehro breezed a half-mile in 50.80 seconds over a sloppy Churchill Downs racetrack early Monday morning, leaving Zayat trying to decide whether to send the colt to the $1 million Preakness.

Johnny Sellers, who rode Carry Back to victory in the 1961 Kentucky Derby and Preakness and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 2007, died early Friday morning in an Arkansas nursing home, according to his son Mark.

Dublin has been withdrawn from consideration for the 142nd Belmont Stakes on June 5, meaning no horse will have run in all three Triple Crown events this year.

The drought continues. For the 32nd straight year -- tacking on yet one more year in the ongoing record of Triple Crown futility -- there will be no sweep of racing's most coveted prize.

Comedero furthered his stature in the 3-year-old sprint ranks with a thoroughly dominating victory Saturday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Chick Lang Stakes going six furlongs at Pimlico.

It is remembered mostly as the race in which the filly was mugged, but the Preakness of 30 years ago also is known as the race that produced arguably the most iconic figure of racing's modern era.

Blame made a triumphant return to action Saturday when splitting horses in midstretch and going on to a clear-cut score under Garrett Gomez in the Grade 3, $100,000 William Donald Schaefer Handicap on the Preakness undercard at Pimlico.

Pimlico officials are trying to ride that very fine line between restoring Preakness attendance to its previous huge numbers while maintaining a decorum that is acceptable to the majority of racegoers.

Strike a Deal had been a high-class turf horse at 2, 3, and 4, earning more than $932,000, but his form went badly awry at 5, when he earned nothing in three dismal starts.

Say anything you want about the Kentucky Derby having more to offer than the Preakness, but, going in, here's something the Preakness has that the Derby doesn't: the Derby winner.

It is remembered mostly as the race in which the filly was mugged, but the Preakness of 30 years ago also is known as the race that produced arguably the most iconic figure of racing's modern era.

Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver breezed an easy three furlongs on a busy Monday morning at Churchill Downs, going in 36.60 seconds over a fast track in preparation for the 135th Preakness on Saturday at Pimlico in Baltimore.