Another reason for the lack of state-bred Preakness winners: Many of the Maryland horsemen who have remained are a realistic lot who often don't think big, observers say.
"The fact that a number of state breeders are targeting the middle market - the allowance or minor stakes level horses - means the odds of a Maryland-bred reaching a Triple Crown race is really not much higher than what history has produced," said David DiPietro, co-founder of the Maryland Stallion Station in Glyndon.
"I don't know that Marylanders really breed horses for the Triple Crown circuit," said Jim Steele, chairman of the Maryland Horse Industry Board. "We get intimidated. People here shy away from the Preakness thinking, `That's for the big boys and we don't have a horse that's good enough' - though they might.
"I don't know that Marylanders have an inferiority complex, but the fact is we're more conservative than Kentucky. Trainers here won't put a horse in the Preakness just to say they did it."
Before he won the 1983 Preakness, you could have said just that about Deputed Testamony.
Of humble roots - his sire, Traffic Cop, stood at stud for a paltry $500 - "DT" was blue-collar to the bone. His dam, Proof Requested, won one race at Charles Town worth $1,797.
Foaled at Bonita Farm, the colt gave no early hint of greatness.
"As a yearling, he liked to have his back scratched after dinner," said J. William Boniface, general manager of the farm. "Otherwise, there was nothing special about him."
The horse began his racing career with a botched moniker. The word "Testimony" was misspelled and never corrected. His first three outings were claiming races; his early times, pedestrian.
"Somewhere along the way, DT's light bulb came on," said J. William Boniface, then his trainer.
When Deputed Testamony finally made it to the Preakness, his handlers couldn't give away the ride. Five jockeys turned down Boniface before 19-year-old Donnie Miller Jr., who was half deaf, climbed aboard.
Few thoroughbreds have run in the Preakness with such common connections. Pedigree, schmedigree. On May 21, on a sloppy track, Deputed Testamony - a 14-to-1 shot - won the race going away.
Early on, the horse stayed close, then surged past the leader, Desert Wine, at the top of the stretch, deliberately staying nearest the rail in the mud. Everyone else steered way clear of the rail, afraid of the poor footing there. But Miller, the leading rider at Pimlico, knew every inch of the track and how it played in the rain.
