This might be hard for you to remember with everything that's going on these days, but there was a time when the Preakness was just a famous horse race that drew thousands of revelers to Pimlico and set one Saturday aside each year for Baltimore to be the center of the sporting universe.
It was a day for sun dresses and pretty hats and ice-cold black-eyed Susans ... and the only day of the year when a Roland Park swell in $300 shoes might seek out some ragged-looking soul in a faded fedora and ask, "Whaddaya think?"
Now, I think not.
The race is still the race, of course, but the event and the racing industry appear to be at a crossroads where wildly divergent social and political interests have come together to debate the future and propriety of the erstwhile Sport of Kings.
In other words, when prohibitive favorite Big Brown breaks from the gate in quest of the second gemstone in racing's Triple Crown, there will be a lot more riding on him than jockey Kent Desormeaux and a huge chunk of the afternoon's pari-mutuel handle.
The conversation over the economic future of horse racing has been going on for a long time in Maryland, and it should come to a head soon with the introduction of slot machines at some tracks subject to a voter referendum in November. Meanwhile, the death of Eight Belles, the runner-up at the Kentucky Derby, has put the Preakness back in the middle of a more emotional debate about the care and treatment of the animals at the various levels of the racing industry.
No one should be surprised that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals jumped at the opportunity to exploit the Eight Belles situation for maximum publicity, or that the organization played fast and loose with the facts in its rush to a judgment about the tragedy that supported its agenda. It's important to note that the group crusades for the ethical treatment of animals but apparently feels no obligation to act ethically in its public flogging of the people who also were scarred by the incident.
And while you're busy not being surprised, you also shouldn't be when PETA protesters show up Saturday at Pimlico looking for some network coverage.
Don't misunderstand. There is a legitimate discussion to be had about breeding and safety issues, but it's hard to have that discussion when somebody is throwing red paint on you or trumpeting the convenient mythology that coldhearted trainers and jockeys can't wait to truck their horses off to make glue and dog food. If PETA really wanted to make a dent in Maryland racing, the group ought to spend its entire advertising budget trying to kill the slots referendum.
