Epicenter’s 6-5 Preakness fave
Kentucky Derby runner-up Epicenter was set Monday as the 6-5 morning-line favorite for the Preakness Stakes, which will be run without Derby winner Rich Strike.
The surprise Derby winner at 80-1 is not in the field of nine for Saturday’s $1.65 million race. Rich Strike’s owner felt the two-week turnaround did not give the colt enough rest and plans to enter him in the Belmont.
Beginning the Preakness draw at a Baltimore-area restaurant, emcee Britney Eurton talked about Rich Strike pulling off “one of the greatest upsets in sports history. Though we might not have the Kentucky Derby winner, there is no shortage of talented runners,” she said.
Rich Strike’s absence clouds the second jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown and makes this the second Preakness in four years without the Derby winner.
VEGAS FIRES DEBOER
The Vegas Golden Knights fired coach Peter DeBoer on Monday after they missed the playoffs for the first time in their five-year franchise history.
General manager Kelly McCrimmon made the announcement and thanked DeBoer for his work with the organization. Vegas failed to qualify for the playoffs after a barrage of injuries compounded by salary-cap problems wreaked havoc on the lineup, most notably in goal.
RONDO GUN THREAT ALLEGED
A Louisville woman was granted an emergency protective order against Cavaliers guard Rajon Rondo and alleges the former Kentucky star brandished a gun and threatened her life.
The woman alleges Rondo “became enraged” last week and filed for the EPO on Friday in Jefferson County Family Court, news outlets reported. She says in the EPO that Rondo was playing video games with a child when she asked the child to finish separating his laundry so she could wash the family’s clothes.
When the child got up to do so, she said Rondo ripped the video game console out of the wall, smashed a teacup plate, knocked over several water bottles and began yelling and cursing. According to the EPO, Rondo then went outside and knocked over the trash cans, stomped on the landscaping lights and drove his car onto the lawn.
When the woman confronted Rondo, the EPO continued, he said, “You’re dead.” After briefly leaving the house, Rondo allegedly came back and beat on a window with a gun. The woman said in the EPO that the player was yelling at the kids, asking them why they were scared of him while he had a gun in his hand.
Two days after the alleged incident occurred, a judge granted the woman the protective order. The judge ordered Rondo not to communicate and to stay at least 500 feet away from her.