Chopped Livery

Our View: Mine That Bird's Owners Come To Their Senses, Agree To Enter Kentucky Derby Winner In The Preakness

After winning a conference championship, does an NFL owner spend a lot of time pondering whether to go to the Super Bowl? Does the manager of a pennant winning baseball team say, "I'll think about the World Series thing and get back to you in a few days?"

Alas, when it rains it pours on Maryland horse racing. An industry that has endured ruinous competition from other forms of legalized gambling over the past two decades, declining attendance, a gradual loss of racing dates, the slots brouhaha, and most recently, bankruptcy and the possibility of state takeover through eminent domain, found itself all wet again over the weekend.

It took until yesterday for the trainer and owners of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird to decide to enter their horse in the Preakness Stakes. That's like winning the Olympic trials and then hesitating over the medal rounds. Whatever happened to the days when the legendary Triple Crown was considered the greatest prize in racing - if not in all of sports?

Mine That Bird's owners Mark Allen and Leonard Blach were probably a little shocked by their Derby victory, and that may explain why they initially equivocated over the Preakness. It's not every day that a 50-1 shot who was running last at the one-third mark of the race ends up winning.

But to even pause a nanosecond over entering a healthy animal in the Preakness - which gives your horse a shot at the Triple Crown - suggests the owners either suffered a momentary brain-freeze or the race has lost more prestige than previously understood.

Surely, if Maryland racing fans didn't have bad luck, they would have no luck at all. At least they can console themselves with a nice cold beer or other beverage - as long as they don't try to bring it with them into the Preakness infield. The long-standing practice of bringing outside beverages to Pimlico Race Course on the third Saturday in May was banned earlier this year.

No doubt Mine That Bird can relate. He's a gelding. He knows disappointment.