Preakness history is loaded with examples of Kentucky Derby winners who couldn’t lose two weeks later at Pimlico. Remember Barbaro? He was 1-2 in the Preakness after an awesome Derby victory but broke down just a few hundred yards after leaving the starting gate.

Before Barbaro there was Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000. He was an awesome Derby winner and he went off at 3-10 but only attracted seven challengers. Fusaichi was beaten that day by Red Bullet, a 6-1 shot who didn’t run in the Kentucky Derby and who was never heard from again. Last year, impressive Derby winner and Preakness favorite Street Sense lost a stirring photo finish to Curlin.
 
That brings us to #7 Big Brown. His Kentucky Derby win was very impressive—he won from a bad post position and had a wide trip. He ran on an atypical Derby day when all the front-runners seemed to hold on. His Beyer Speed Figure, 109, is mundane for Derby champions, who frequently score between 112 and 117. There are indications that the Beyer figure would have been higher if he had not run so wide. On the other hand, the Derby field was unusually weak.

Polo went glam at America's Cup of Polo this past weekend, where the fashionable folks came out for a polo match between Italy and America, live music, fireworks and more. Check below for our photo slideshow.

See Kim Eisler's Derby picks here.

For many years Washington Post horse racing writer Andrew Beyer was my hero. For a time, after the publication of his influential handicapping book Picking Winners, I became a virtual stalker, leaving messages on his answering machine and trying to sidle up next to him during the Daily Double at the old Sports Palace at Laurel Race Course.

Over the years, our relationship has cooled, largely because now we actually know each other.

Be that as it may, Andy never has been able to really get a handle on the Kentucky Derby.  For many years, he admitted to his Derby cluelessness. Meanwhile, my own list of Derby successes has been pretty impressive.  I picked the Derby winners in 2006 and 2007, Barbaro and Street Sense.  I have nailed such unlikely winners as Winning Colors in 1998,  Sunday Silence in 1989, Strike the Gold in 1991,  Silver Charm in 1997,  and Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000 (See Kim's current Derby picks here).  I doubt whether Beyer had any of them.

For those who don’t closely follow racing, Andy is the guru, the Einstein who created the “Beyer Speed Figures.”  From the mid 1970s until last year, the Beyer Speed Figures were the greatest advance in the history of gambling.  For many years one had to buy his book and figure out how to compute them.  I spents hundreds of hours of my life doing that.  Then the Daily Racing Form decided to buy the Beyer Speed Figures and print them next to the entries and past performances for every horse at every track in America. 

See Kim Eisler's piece Andy Beyer Is Wrong—Sadly, Badly Wrong—About His Kentucky Derby Picks.

The Kentucky Derby will be run Saturday afternoon. A field of 20 is expected to compete.  The horse with the solidest local connections is #15 Adriano, ridden by former Laurel jockey Edgar Prado, and trained by Marylander Graham Motion.  Another jockey familiar to local horseplayers is Ramon Dominquez, who will be aboard #14 Monba.

Of the 20 horses starting, only eight have any realistic shot of winning. Here are my top picks:

Washington is a two-faced town, swinging between its federal and local identities. Inaugural night for Nationals Stadium showcased local Washington—from the party hosted by the Lerner Family, hometown owners of the baseball team, to the food and the crowd in the stadium.

True, President George Bush threw out the first pitch. And a sprinkling of usual suspects from national Washington made the scene, but the Lerners put a local stamp on the affair, starting with their VIP party.

Many of the “very important people” invited to the spare affair on the unfinished top floor of the Lerners' office building on M Street were lifelong friends of Ted and Annette Lerner. There was much more Chevy Chase and Bethesda than K Street and Capitol Hill.

After spending free-agency money like a drunken sailor with little to show for it, the Washington Redskins owner may finally be growing out of his fan phase—as in “Let’s sign Deion Sanders—he’s a star!” The Redskins have been wallflowers at this year’s free-agency dance.

With his team already capped out and with every starter signed for next year, Snyder resisted the temptation to bring in some fading star by private plane and sign him to a multimillion-dollar deal. The early signings always are the most expensive and the most overpaid.

Collaborations, launched by management consultant Angela Drummond, seeks to meld the best of sports, entertainment, dining, and a private club. With rates as high as $250,000 a year for six people (three-year minimum membership required), she’s finding an audience.

The club was created when the Verizon Center ripped out eight luxury suites on the third level of the arena and Collaborations renovated the 5,000-square-foot space into a venue one could easily confuse with a power setting like the Tower Club in McLean. Dark-paneled walls and an expansive bar overlooking the National Portrait Gallery greet the club’s members, who can amuse themselves during events with a pool table, conduct business in a conference room, dine in a room on food prepared by a chef hired from the Ritz-Carlton, or just watch the game from large leather seats. Don’t want to sit for the game? Flat screens broadcast the entertainment throughout the club—even in the men’s restroom.

Drummond says she hopes to sell 60 to 70 memberships—she’s about a quarter of the way there—targeted toward such dealmakers as developers, lawyers, recruiters, and government contractors.