Horse Racing News by Jay Privman

Shackleford, who won the 136th Preakness Stakes on Saturday, came out of the race well, and his chances of running in the Belmont Stakes on June 11 are "better than 50-50," his trainer, Dale Romans, said Sunday morning here at Pimlico.

Apart ($4.40), the favorite, prevailed under jockey Garrett Gomez after a prolonged stretch battle, covering 1 1/16 miles on a fast, but dull, main track in 1:43.70. Icabad Crane was another 1 1/2 lengths back in third.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and the mares Open Mind, Safely Kept, and Sky Beauty are the 2011 inductees into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame announced Friday.

As the prospective field for the May 21 Preakness Stakes came into sharper focus on Wednesday, the horse they will all have to beat yet again, Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, returned to the track.

Animal Kingdom ruled over 18 other 3-year-olds in the Kentucky Derby here Saturday, and it looks like he'll face another large field in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 21.

Trainer Graham Motion, a British expatriate, on Sunday morning had recovered enough to start focusing on the May 21 Preakness Stakes, which he said would be the next start for Animal Kingdom, the upset winner of Saturday's Churchill Downs.

Without a mount following the scratch of Uncle Mo on Friday, Velazquez was picked up by the connections of Amimal Kingdom later in the morning, according to Barry Irwin, the president of the Team Valor Syndicate that owns Animal Kingdom.

Although Arienza has come quite far in just a handful of starts in the past two months, her trainer, Dan Peitz, thought it wise to bypass the Kentucky Oaks on Friday at Churchill Downs and instead run her on the undercard in the Grade 3 Eight Belles.

The old-timer Musketier successfully defended his title in the Elkhorn Stakes on Friday's closing-day card at Keeneland by rallying from sixth in the final quarter-mile to take the Grade 2, $150,000 grass stakes for the second straight year.

Jockey Calvin Borel has won the Kentucky Derby three times in the last four years, but not until Wednesday did he line up a mount for this year's race on May 7.