Preakness

(NOTE: To download Liam's full cheat sheet for all of Saturday's races, click here . Following is his analysis on the Preakness Stakes.)   There are always lots of hard luck stories in the Kentucky Derby, and some of those hard luck horses come to the Preakness looking to set the record straight. Several of those guys are here to take on Orb. And a handful more Derby grumblers are skipping the Preakness to set their sights on the Belmont. However, recent history shows that the Derby winner tends to back up the Derby win and beat most if not all of those Derby finishers again.

On the Wednesday and Thursday before the Preakness, as excitement built for the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, many trainers and owners slipped away from Pimlico Race Course and drove eight miles north on Interstate 83 to look a year into the future. At the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, 2-year-old colts and fillies dashed around the track, some with confidence but most with exuberance unmatched by experience. The owners and trainers who breed, buy and develop them into racers spoke in hushed tones, making notes in a catalog listing 425 horses.

With nearly every eye at Pimlico fixated on either the uncatchable leader, Oxbow, or the Kentucky Derby winner and heavy betting favorite, Orb, Itsmyluckyday cruised under the radar to earn a little bit of redemption in Saturday's Preakness. After failing to challenge Orb on the muddy track at Churchill Downs two weeks ago and finishing near the back of the pack, Itsmyluckyday finished in second place in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. "We did run our race, but we just weren't lucky enough to win," trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. said.

Kudos to The Sun for the abundant coverage of horse racing during the lead up to the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. It's been a lot of years since The Sun has provided that level of coverage. While the number of stories has been high, the quality of the articles was equally as strong, particularly those written by Chris Korman . He uncovered angles and stories that made for compelling reading and were hard to put down. Ditto the ones written by Jean Marbella and Childs Walker . The Maryland horse racing industry is on the upswing.

Among the concerns for jockeys at the Preakness today is the weather. Shortly before rain began to fall minutes ago, jockeys were watching the skies. Some know all too well that their horses don't respond to sloppy tracks, and they were holding out hope that the rain stayed away from Pimlico Race Cource. “I hope it stays like this [without rain] and I hope he likes the track.” said John Velazquez, who is riding Itsmyluckyday. “[Itsmyluckyday] is another horse that didn't run very good in the slop at Churchill Downs.” Itsmyluckyday finished 15th at The Kentucky Derby with Elvis Trujilloaboard.

For many folks headed to Preakness, the focus of the afternoon isn't the race. It's the fashion — and we don't just mean hats. If you're in the grandstands, the Jockey Club area or Corporate Village, you'll want to dress the part. Betsy Dugan, owner of Bettina Collections in Cross Keys and former co-owner of Octavia in Pikesville, has been dressing women for Preakness for years. "This is the time ... to dress up," she said. If there's one rule of thumb, it's that ladies and gentlemen at Preakness should look like ...well, ladies and gentlemen.

May. 18, Post Time: 10:45AM Entries and comments provided by the Maryland Jockey Club First - Purse $55,000, AOC $25,000-$20,000, 3 yo's & up, One And One Sixteenth Miles Post, Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Odds 1 Aussi Austin, Rosario, R.Rodriguez, 3-1 2 Bob's Gone Wild, Vargas, J.Lopez, 20-1 3 Jarrod's Commando, Karamanos, C.Garcia, 10-1 4 Warrensburg, Boyce, D.Barr, 20-1 5 Benny Or Local, Cruise, D.Kobiskie,...

Bob Baffert strode into the Preakness stakes barn Friday morning, shouting toward Orb's trainer Shug McGaughey loud enough so all could hear. "OK, Shug, I'm here to take away that media spotlight for you," he said. Baffert, indeed, is one of the few people in the sport who could have swiped some of the attention from McGaughey and his heavily favored colt this week . Baffert has won the Preakness five times, and on three occasions he's moved on to Belmont with a chance at the Triple Crown.

Joel Rosario rode anyway. Upon returning to the jockey's room last May 20, he learned that his brother Marino , a police officer in his native Dominican Republic, had been killed in a motorcycle accident. Creative Cause -- and a chance to ride in his first Preakness -- awaited. Rosario went out to the track. "I just think it was really sad for me," he said Friday morning at Pimlico Race Course. "It was something that really hurt me. " Rosario took Creative Cause out with Bodemeister on the lead, but sagged to third as I'll Have Another won a duel down the stretch.

If the Black Eyed Susan were a race horse, it would be a sprinter. It makes one strong move, then fades quickly. The strong move occurs this weekend when the cocktail will be in demand at Pamlico Race Track, during both the running of the Black Eyed Susan Stakes on Friday and the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. Over these two days, about 25,000 servings of the libation, poured into commemorative glasses, will be sold at $8 apiece, track officials say. But as soon as Preakness weekend ends, so does the does the local thirst for the Susan.

This was for every guy who ever had a mid-life crisis and tried to do something nobody thought could be done. Fifty-year-old Jockey Gary Stevens took Oxbow to the front early and never looked back on the way to an upset victory in the 138th Preakness Stakes that was truly one for the ageless. Oxbow was a 15-1 shot when he left the gate, and he wasn't the one beating the longest odds at Old Hilltop on Saturday. Stevens became the first grandfather ever to win a Triple Crown race, and he did it against a Kentucky Derby winner - Orb - that was considered almost unassailable.

Consider this our encore applause for Macklemore's performance at Preakness. This weekend, the self-made Seattle rapper took the stage at the Triple Crown's second jewel and delivered a set that included his two most recognizable songs -- "Thrift Shop" and "Can't Hold Us" -- but also the song "Same Love," in which he stands up for same-sex marriage and gay rights in an unabashedly forward way. Here's a link to the song's video on YouTube....

The numbers alone say the 138th Preakness was a huge success. A crowd of 117,203, the fourth largest in Preakness history, was on hand to see long-shot Oxbow's shocking win and heavy-favorite Orb's disappointing run. And the total handle for the day was a healthy $81,940,233, sixth largest in history. But Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas still spent much of the day looking up at the skies and hoping the rain would stay away. It didn't, but it turned out he worried needlessly.

The audience for NBC's coverage of the Preakness was up by as much as 24 percent during the afternoon, according to overnight Nielsen data provided by the network. The audience for the block of time that includes the race (5:45 p.m.-6:45 p.m. ET) was 9% up from 2012 with a 6.0 ratings versus 5.5 last year. Pre-race on NBC (5 p.m.-5:45 p.m. ET) was up 24% from 2012. That's a 3.6 ratings versus 2.9, and that's the largest audience since 2009. Not surpisingly, Baltimore was the top market with the telecast drawing a 15.7 rating and a 32 share.

Most of the horses in the stakes barns at Pimlico Race Course had cleared out by 8:30 Sunday morning, having loaded into vans under the cover of early-morning rain. Plates with pieces of cake left over from last night's victory party for Oxbow dotted the ground near trainer D. Wayne Lukas' temporary office, as did a few emptied beer bottles. As he said he would, Lukas began loading his horses into a van bound for Louisville less than 12 hours after winning his 14th Triple Crown race, a new record.

D. Wayne Lukas may seem to the public an unlikely candidate to be one of the most hands-on trainers working in horse racing today. He shows up on television - like Saturday, when his horse Oxbow cruised to a win in the 138th Preakness - looking more like a grandfather enjoying an unbothered retirement in a place where the sun is barely hidden. But the opposite is true. Sunday morning he appeared at his barn a bit later than planned but still less than 12 hours after his horse fended off a listless field in an unexpectedly languorous middle leg of the Triple Crown.

Secretariat wins again. More than 39 years after the super horse won the Preakness on his way to a Triple Crown, the Maryland Racing Commission ruled Tuesday that he had set what was then a track and is still a race record, covering the mile-and-three-sixteenths in 1:53. Secretariat now holds the race record in all three Triple Crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont) events. "It's nice to finally have this recognized, because the sport depends on accuracy," said Secretariat owner Penny Chenery, who helped pushed for the adjustment.

Gary Stevens caught the water bottle tossed his way, took one swig and threw it back. “He don't want any?” a man asked, considering jockeys usually shower their horses, too. Stevens shook his head from his perch atop Oxbow, the wire-to-wire winner of the 138th Preakness. “Ain't even tired,” he said. Stevens, a 50-year-old grandfather who came out of a seven-year retirement at the beginning of the year, used a daring ride to clinch an anti-climatic second leg of the Triple Crown at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday.

The Preakness forecast remains a tough call with varying chances of rain predicted. Weather is a major factor every year. From the May 12, 1940, edition of The Baltimore Sun: "Weather man had a tough time making up his mind. Sunshine and gayety until the first race. Everybody talking about first decent Preakness day in three years. ... Sun disappeared, cool wind blew, fancy parasols topping tables on Clubhouse lawn being took off like kites, after second race. ... Sun out again for third race.

A pair of racing aficionados from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., spent Saturday watching the early races at Pimlico, then they put their observations to use to score a massive payday in the Preakness. Joe Cavallo, 26, and Stephanie Rafferty, 21, hit the Pick 4 with Preakness winner Oxbow, Itsmyluckyday, Mylute, and Orb. One of their 72 50-cent Pick 4 bets netted $4,883.05, and Rafferty fought back tears as she saw the payout. “What am I going to do with $5,000?” Rafferty said. “It hasn't set in yet.” While the couple spends countless summer days at the track in Saratoga, Rafferty, who works in construction, said she only gambles on the big race days.