The horse racing world is holding its collective breath. Big Brown has a slight crack in his left front foot – nothing serious, but enough to raise tensions in a week that also saw Panty Raid retired due to injury and Nashoba’s Key (above photo) euthanized. One wrong step at the Belmont Stakes, and the sport’s profile may never recover.

In this supercharged environment, Big Brown is still the heavy favorite to win the Belmont and complete the Triple Crown. But he’s lost a little steam at 1-3 after opening at 2-9. Casino Drive has moved from 9-2 to 7-2 as the second favorite. The Japanese-trained horse won the Peter Pan Stakes earlier this month and may still have some value as a relative unknown.

Edgar Prado will be in the saddle for Casino Drive on June 7. Kent Desormeaux, who rode Casino Drive to victory at the Peter Pan, remains on Big Brown.

If Rick Dutrow Jr. is to be believed, a bet at 9-2 for Casino Drive to win the Belmont Stakes is a wasted bet.

“He’s got no chance,” Dutrow told reporters Wednesday. Strong words from the trainer of Big Brown, who is 2-9 to complete the first Triple Crown in 30 years. But there are some horseplayers who are willing to give the Kentucky-bred, Japanese-trained Casino Drive a spin, based on his pedigree and his blazing win by 5-3/4 lengths at the Peter Pan Stakes.

The pedigree’s the thing. Casino Drive is the son of Better Than Honour, the same mare who produced the last two Belmont winners: Jazil and Rags to Riches.

Big Brown’s jockey, Kent Desormeaux, also happened to ride Casino Drive to victory at the Peter Pan. He was a lot more complementary about Casino Drive’s Belmont chances than Dutrow.

“He’s a phenomenal talent. We’ve got our hands full with this one.”

No news on the NBA front – the home teams just keep winning. They’re up to 20-1 (15-5-1 ATS) in the second round after Thursday’s massive 99-80 victory. The only road team to win during the conference semifinals was Detroit, who beat Orlando in Game 4 without Chauncey Billups, earning the star point guard valuable time off to let his hamstring heal. He’s expected to be ready for the next round.

Detroit will be playing Boston if this pattern continues. The Celtics are up 3-2 going back to Cleveland for Friday’s Game 6. The Cavs lost point guard Daniel Gibson to a separated shoulder in Game 5, but were still able to finagle a payday out of the Garden to go 4-1 ATS against the C’s in this series.

Cleveland was a 3-point chalk at press time. Friday’s nightcap has the Los Angeles Lakers (+4) visiting the Utah Jazz with a chance to move on to the Western final.

Twenty-five-year-old tennis champion Justin Henin called it quits today, telling reporters at a news conference that she was burnt out and had lost that spark that keeps so many great players going.

“I always based everything on this motivation—this flame—that was in me. And once I lost that, I lost many, many things,” Henin said.

The Belgian pro has seven Grand Slam titles and has spent more than 100 weeks in the No. 1 spot. Although some may criticize Henin’s decision to retire from the sport just 1 1/2 weeks before the French Open (which she has won the last three times, four in total), she says it was a decision she had to inevitably accept.

“I decided to stop fooling myself and accept it,” she said.

Henin has 41 WTA singles titles to her credit and has collected more than U.S.$19 million in prize money over the course of her career. With the world No. 1 out of the running at this year’s French Open, Serena Williams is the 5/2 odds on favorite to win, with Maria Sharapova close behind at 5/1 odds to win the French Open.

The PGA The Players Championship ended Sunday and Sergio Garcia was the man who came out on top winning a grand total of $ 1,710,000.00. That’s some nice pocket change for winning the richest tournament in golf.

Garcia ended the longest victory drought of his career by making a clutch par putt to force a playoff and hitting the island-green 17th on the first extra hole to defeat Paul Goydos in The Players Championship.

Haunted by putting problems that kept him without a victory the past three years and 53 PGA TOUR events, Garcia came up with a 45-foot birdie on the 14th to get back in the game and a 7-foot par putt on the 18th hole for a 1-under 71.

“It’s been a lot of work,” Garcia said, clutching the crystal trophy. “It feels like the last three years I’ve been playing well. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to come around and win. This week, I played so nicely. It felt like everything was so hard. I’m just thrilled the week is over and I managed to finish on top.”

The wind this weekend was absolutely relentless and Garcia had never needed a win so badly. This 28 year old Spaniard has had the most PGA tour wins of people under 30.

In his victory speech he was also quoted and saying thanks to Tiger Woods for not playing due to his knee surgery. Without Tiger there he could have never won!

Maybe Danica Patrick was thinking back to her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue shoot when she ran over Charles Buckman? Probably not. Accidents do happen, right?

Charles Buckman, the chief mechanic for Mario Moraes’ No. 19 car, was struck by Danica Patrick’s car today during a practice run for the upcoming Indianapolis 500. Fortunately, Buckman’s injuries weren’t life threatening but he was taken to the hospital.

“I really don’t remember how it happened,” Buckman said. “All I remember is I was talking with someone on Marco Andretti’s team, and then everything is blank from that point. I will be OK and hopefully back to work in a day or two.”

Danica Patrick’s big win at the 2008 Indy Japan 300 made her the first woman to win an Indy car race.

“It’s really, really unfortunate what happened today,” Patrick said after the incident. “Thoughts and prayers are with him, with his family and hopefully he can get back on the track soon and be able to do what he loves.”

Looking for more on Danica Patrick? Check out this Fox Sports interview. Looking for Indy 500 odds and betting lines? Check out the Bodog Sportsbook.

With all the hoop-la surrounding last Saturday’s fight between De La Hoya and Forbes there is no better time then to release a modern pair of boxing gloves right?

That’s what Nintendo; the makers of Wii have just come out with, Boxing gloves. This new addition will strengthen the artificial results of the already created boxing games for Wii.

These little inflatable gloves are sure to give you the strength to kick some Golden Boy ass! Take that De La Hoya!

The NBA playoffs have already made for some riveting television. Tim Duncan hit a clutch 3-pointer to help the Spurs beat Phoenix in double overtime of their series opener. Chris Paul dropped a triple double on Jason Kidd and the Mavericks. Dwight Howard had three “20-20” games against the Raptors. And the Hawks beat the Celtics three times in Atlanta, proving yet again the value of playing in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. Fans of other teams should take note.

So should front offices. Instead of keeping fans “entertained” at the arenas, actively bring in the kind of fan who provides that “sixth man” support Atlanta showed up with at Phillips Arena. It’s basketball, not a corporate family picnic.

Based on the difficulty Boston had beating the Hawks on the road, I like the L.A. Lakers (9-4 at press time) even more at that price to beat the Celtics (5-4) for the NBA title.

The Los Angeles Lakers are listed at 9/5 odds to win the NBA Championship.

Big Brown is turning into a rock star. Conventional media (perhaps with some prodding from UPS) is cranking up the hype machine in advance of Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. The son of Danzig is priced at 4-1 to win, the same as Colonel John. Can we conclude that Big Brown is overvalued?

Not in horse racing. Picking the best horse in the field is a bit like picking the best painting in a gallery. Art critics will be universally drawn to a masterpiece; owners, trainers and jockeys feel the same way about Big Brown. He is a fantastic piece of genetic engineering, as Street Sense was last year. “He’s a major talent, possibly the best horse I’ve ridden,” jockey Kent Desormeaux told reporters after Big Brown’s majestic win at the Florida Derby.

Colonel John, meanwhile, is getting short odds despite racing on synthetic tracks in each of his six career races. How will he handle the dirt on Saturday?