Success

BALTIMORE - Stuart Janney III noticed a text from Seth Hancock at 6 a.m. on Kentucky Derby Day. It said: "If your day ends as well as it's begun today, you will remember this day for the rest of your life. " At 4:40 a.m. that morning, a filly out of a mare Janney owns was born at Hancock's Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky. Janney's day ended with Orb, the colt he co-owns with his cousin Dinny Phipps, in the Kentucky Derby winner's circle. If Orb ends up in the Preakness winner's circle today, the only day that could top the first two would be if Orb wins the June 8 Belmont Stakes and the elusive Triple Crown, unclaimed for 34 years.

Pallam Raju has a daunting job. In India, he oversees the education of 230 million children. Raju, 50, also oversees higher education as the minister of human resource development, a position to which he was appointed in October. On Thursday, he described the challenges of his job at the commencement ceremony for the Fox School of Business at Temple University. Raju, who earned his master's of business administration degree at Temple in 1986, had an honorary doctor of humane letters conferred upon him earlier in the day at the university's main commencement ceremony.

Tough little Union City's public school test scores and graduation rates rival those of comfortable suburbs. But in the late 1980s, the only schools with which Union City could be said to "compete" were in troubled Camden. While public education in Camden has won a sad race to the bottom - Trenton is taking over the city's schools - the success of Union City has inspired a laudatory new book. Improbable Scholars (Oxford University Press) offers something of a guide for Camden and struggling school districts nationwide.

IF THE LATE Harry Kalas was still around, he might've said: "That bat is outta here. " That's right: Bat! Mickey Mantle's family succeeded in stopping an auction house from trying to sell a corked bat allegedly used by the Mick. The Mantle family went ballistic when Grey Flannel Auctions claimed the doctored bat was used by Mantle. The family even brought in a heavy-hitter to represent them - the law firm of Bracewell and Giuliani. That's Giuliani as in Rudy, the former mayor of New York, who is a huge Yankees fan. Yesterday, Jonathan Halpern, a partner in the law firm issued a statement: "The online marketer informed us that it had withdrawn the bat from sale and also had removed the bat [and related photos and statements from its website]

PHOENIX - Seven innings of two-run baseball on Sunday lowered Kyle Kendrick's ERA to 2.47. That mark ranks 10th in the National League. Every five days, he is making his case as one of the league's best pitchers. Has it sunk in yet? "No," Kendrick said after a 4-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. "I was talking to Roy [Halladay] the other day in the outfield about when you're going like that, you don't think about it. You just move on. Like tomorrow, I'm going to get ready for my next start.

WEST Philadelphia-born and -raised, Colman Domingo makes no pretense of passing as a prince of Bel-Air. No need to; at 43, he's more a poobah of film and stage. And he's got the credits to prove it, from Steven Spielberg's recent, Oscar-winning "Lincoln" to Spike Lee's "Passing Strange," a 2009 film based on a play that Domingo appeared in and won an off-Broadway Obie Award for. You'll also see him this fall in Lee Daniels' "The Butler," about White House butler Eugene Allen.

Senior Josh Awotunde thought he would be throwing spirals well past his days at Delsea Regional, but his plans were intercepted as early as his freshman year. Awotunde was the strong-armed and hard-to-bring-down, 6-foot-2, 230-pound quarterback and defensive lineman for Delsea's team that went 11-1 and won the South Jersey Group 3 championship in the fall. Awotunde went out for track as a freshman, hoping to be a sprinter and improve his speed for football. Even at his size, Awotunde can motor, but he was looking to get even faster.

TAKYI WILLIAMS RUNS a barbershop in Point Breeze with his wife. But he often found himself spending less time cutting hair and more time cleaning up messes left behind by his fellow residents - such as graffiti on a wall or bags of trash on the sidewalk. Then, another neighborhood resident, Andrew Pinkham, told Williams about an app, Philly311, that allows him to snap a picture and send it instantly to the city's 3-1-1 office, where such requests are handled. Williams said the ease of using the app has allowed him to spend more time focusing on his business.

MAKHACHKALA, Dagestan - The people of Dagestan are puzzled, and disturbed. Why do the Americans come here for answers? The suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings - Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev - and their family have roots here, and last year Tamerlan returned for six months. Did he find someone or something in this southern Russia region that might have made him turn to terror? That question brought crowds of journalists to Makhachkala in the last week, and they have put it to relatives, policemen, imams, and government officials.