Sports in Brief: Big Brown runs with clean hoof

A feisty

Big Brown

was back in his barn after a final workout for the Belmont Stakes yesterday, and

Rick Dutrow Jr.

wasted no time zeroing in on the crack in the colt's left front hoof.

No blood.

"I didn't see any," the trainer said, promptly relaying the good news to hoof specialist

Ian McKinlay

by phone. "I said that he went good and I don't see any issue at all. I told him that everything was beautiful."

Big Brown ran five furlongs in 1 minute, 0.03 seconds in preparation for the final leg of what could be the first Triple Crown since 1978.

Elsewhere: Eight Belles

will be buried at the Kentucky Derby Museum in Louisville, Ky., near the grave sites of four Kentucky Derby winners. The 3-year-old filly broke two ankles after finishing second to Big Brown in the Derby on May 3. She was euthanized on the track.

John Tortorella

was fired as coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, four years after leading the team to its only Stanley Cup title. He had one season left on his contract.

The Lightning were 239-222-36-38 and made the playoffs four times in 61/2 seasons under Tortorella, who took over a perennial last-place team in January 2001.

Antonio Pettigrew

gave up his Olympic gold medal in the 4x400-meter relay Tuesday, two weeks after the sprinter admitted in court that he cheated to win at Sydney in 2000. During last month's trial involving former track coach

Trevor Graham,

Pettigrew admitted using the banned substances EPO and human growth hormone from 1997 to 2003.

The United States should abandon plans to host the 2018 World Cup in favor of a 2022 bid, FIFA vice president

Jack Warner

said. Warner, who is from Trinidad and Tobago, said he wanted England to get the 2018 Cup and the United States to host it in 2022.

Elsewhere:

Delran's

Carli Lloyd

made the roster for the U.S. women's team that will play at the 2008 Peace Queen Cup in South Korea, starting June 15.

Green Bay Packers running back

Noah Herron

thwarted a burglar by hitting him with a bedpost during a break-in at his suburban Green Bay home.

Brown County (Wis.) Sheriff

Dennis Kocken

said the break-in happened late Friday and the intruder remained hospitalized. The sheriff said Herron used "necessary, reasonable and justifiable force in protecting his life and property." A second suspect was later arrested.

Elsewhere:

The Houston Texans signed general manager

Rick Smith

to a four-year contract extension, keeping him with the team through 2012. . . .

Inside the NFL,

which ran for 31 years on HBO, will move to Showtime beginning Sept. 10.

Seniors

Stacy Kim

of Penn and

Arusha McKenzie

of Villanova were at-large entries added to the field for next week's NCAA track and field championships in Des Moines, Iowa.

Kim will run in the women's 5,000 meters, and McKenzie in the women's 800.

In all, 10 athletes representing Big Five schools will participate in the meet. They include Villanova seniors

Bobby Curtis

(men's 5,000),

Michael Kerrigan

(men's 1,500),

Marco Radocaj

(men's javelin) and

Liz Haglund

(women's steeplechase); seniors

Sean Quigley

(men's 10,000) of La Salle and

Jesse Carlin

(women's 800) of Penn; and juniors

Frances Koons

(women's 5,000) of Villanova and

Max Westman

(decathlon) of Penn.

Taylor King

officially enrolled at Villanova after spending his freshman basketball season at Duke, where he averaged 5.5 points per game. The 6-foot-6 forward is from Santa Ana Mater Dei High School in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Kaitlin Cochran

hit a three-run homer,

Katie Burkhart

pitched a four-hitter, and Arizona State routed Texas A&M, 11-0, to win its first NCAA Division I softball title, in Oklahoma City.

Elsewhere:

Temple's football team will kick off its home season at noon Sept. 6, against Connecticut at Lincoln Financial Field. . . . Rivals.com reported that

Mike Larrow,

a 6-4, 250-pound defensive end from Union (N.J.) High, has given an oral commitment to attend Rutgers in the fall of 2009. . . . The Penn State-Syracuse football game Sept. 13 will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and will air on ABC from the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.

The Philadelphia Force softball team, fresh off a four-game sweep of the Netherlands' national squad, will meet China in a four-game series June 11 to 13 at Allentown's ECTB Stadium.

Max Mosley

overcame a sex scandal and won a vote of confidence to remain president of FIA, motor racing's governing body. A British newspaper reported that the 68-year-old Englishman had engaged in Nazi-themed sex acts with prostitutes.

Jay Blumenfeld

of Mountain Ridge shot a 1-under-par 70 and held a 3-shot lead after the first round of the 107th New Jersey State Golf Association Amateur Championship at Little Mill Country Club in Burlington County.