Dallas Beall really wanted that victory in last year's Preakness, for he was performing in front of a hometown crowd full of family members and old friends.
Alas, it was not to be. A sudden wind current near the ground blew him away to the left, out of contention.
Confused? You don't remember the wind affecting the outcome of the 1994 Preakness?
Mr. Beall, you see, is a balloon jockey. And the event he did not win was the annual hot-air balloon race that has preceded the Preakness Stakes horse race for more than 20 years now.
As Preakness Celebration '95 nears, organizers say this year's Preakness Balloon Festival will be the biggest yet, including more balloons and more chances for spectators to view them in flight. The first liftoff, a media flight, is scheduled at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, from Oregon Ridge Park in Cockeysville.
"I think it's one of the best balloon events in the whole country," says Mr. Beall, 48, who owns a jewelry store in Louisville, Ky., but grew up in the Baltimore area, in Overlea and Towson. He's coming to fly in his fifth Preakness event.
"The pilots really love coming to Baltimore. There are just a lot of things going on in the area, with good parties, good hotel convenience, restaurants and so on," says Dan Sherrill, an Austin, Texas, balloonist who is coordinator of the Preakness balloon events.
Mr. Sherrill, 44, a hot-air pilot for 18 years, is assistant director of the Balloonists Federation of America, and will assume the directorship next year. He expects 50 balloons to participate in Preakness events this year, five more than last year and double the number participating when he took over five years ago. Pilots compete for prizes totaling $12,000.
Among the lighter-than-air craft expected are a handful of promotional balloons, including a Burger King Whopper, a Ballpark Franks hot dog, a Mr. Peanut, a rolled-up Daily Racing Form newspaper and an Early Times whiskey bottle.
Ascensions are planned for Thursday through May 14, weather permitting. The balloons cannot fly in rain or in winds over about 12 miles an hour.
Morning flights are scheduled Thursday and Sunday at Oregon Ridge Park, and Saturday from Druid Hill Park in Baltimore, the traditional Preakness liftoff location. All these flights are at 6:30 a.m., to minimize wind problems.
Friday launch
The official opening of Preakness Celebration '95 will be marked by a launch at 5:30 p.m. Friday from Oregon Ridge. And the final competitive balloon rise, also from Oregon Ridge, is planned at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
The balloons also participate in a spectacular nighttime event Saturday at Oregon Ridge, the fifth annual "Crown Central Petroleum BalloonGlow," in which pilots fire their burners to light up the tethered lifting bags like giant light bulbs. This year, they'll be accompanying a new Preakness Celebration country music festival.
While the Preakness Stakes may rank second to last week's Kentucky Derby in terms of national awareness of horse racing's Triple Crown events, the Preakness balloon event is a clear winner over the Derby, say pilots.
Balloon racing has taken place the Saturday before the Kentucky Derby for more than 20 years. But Mr. Sherrill and Mr. Beall say the Kentucky event has remained a modest one-day race on the Saturday morning before the Derby.
"Since Dan took it over, Baltimore has blossomed into what it had the potential to become," says Mr. Beall.
Mr. Sherrill says he has begun exploring the possibility of launching a balloon festival in connection with the Belmont Stakes in New York, in hopes of having a triple crown of balloon racing to parallel the thoroughbred chase.
"It's more of an idea we are considering right now, but it'd be a great event to pull the three off," he says.
What is it about balloons that complements horse racing?
"First, they're colorful -- and that's both pilots and crafts," jokes Bob Corey, another Louisville-based balloonist, who is the "balloonmeister" of the Preakness flying events.
He sets the competitive events, decides whether the weather is suitable for flying and often flies the "hare" balloon in a "hare-and-hound" race. When he lands, competing balloons that have followed him into the air try to land closest to his balloon.
"People can get up close and touch the balloons, and talk to the pilots," Mr. Corey continues. "Somehow balloons go back to a more nostalgic bygone era, a kind of bridge to the past."
'Something magical'
"They kind of stimulate something magical that's in all of us. . . . They offer kind of a sense of freedom, beauty and peacefulness," suggests Mr. Sherrill. He estimates at least one organized balloon festival can be found somewhere in the United States every weekend of the year.
Baltimore-born Mr. Beall saw ballooning initially as an advertising opportunity, after a customer asked him to design a pair of balloon earrings for a client who was a pilot.
