Now that Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby, it's time to plan your future racing excursions. Next up on the calendar is the Preakness Stakes, run in Baltimore on May 17. The final leg of the three-race series is the Belmont Stakes, which takes over Elmont, New York on June 7.
It's totally possible to just head to the track and enjoy these events, though there isn't quite as much pomp and circumstance as there is at the Derby. Still, lots of people will be dressed to the nines and there's always tons of betting at horse races. (Yay, betting!) And for $25 at the Preakness and $10 at the Belmont, the races are some of the cheapest sports tickets around.
It's bad enough to worry about chickens with the flu, but now horses are coming down with sniffles? That's the problem facing Australia right now with a highly contagious bout of equine flu doing the rounds.
And while the horse flu isn't dangerous for humans, it does put a dent in a few tourist attractions, and this week it's the famous outback Birdsville Races. Held annually in outback Queensland for the last 125 years, officials have just announced that this year's races have to be canceled because the risk of equine flu spreading is too high.
Despite that, they're still predicting that 6,000 tourists will head to Birdsville for the related festivities. There are numerous sideshows, concerts, races and an auction to keep visitors amused, although we're not sure we'd truly enjoy a horse race festival in the middle of nowhere with, you know, no horses.
Two months after the death of Anna Nicole Smith, DNA tests revealed yesterday in the Bahamas have confirmed that photographer Larry Birkhead is the father of her daughter Dannielynn. It was a great day for Birkhead, who broke up with Anna Nicole in July of last year, but not for widower and lawyer Howard K. Stern, who had a "commitment ceremony" with Smith in September and is listed on the baby's birth certificate.
Birkhead and Smith met at the Kentucky Derby in 2004 and he's a Louisville native, although these days the paparazzo calls Burbank home. For all you would-be celebrity baby-daddies, this year's Derby will be held May 5, which gives you 24 days to build up your tolerance for mint juleps and giant, ridiculous hats.
But if you really, really want to get involved in a paternity case of your very own, might we recommend setting up camp early? The Kentucky Derby Festival presents events all throughout April -- this Friday and Saturday, for instance, is the Adidas Derby Festival starring up-and-coming basketball players. Dannielynn may be staying in the Bahamas for the moment, but you don't have to.
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