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Tom Law 
The signs were there the day before the 140th Preakness. You just needed to be there and interpret them the right way. It all happened rather quickly. In less than five minutes it became pretty clear who was the star of the show and the primary concern of his five-time Preakness-winning trainer.
Well, hello again. What’s it been, a year already? Hard to believe 12 months have slipped past since we last heard from you.
What’s your name again?
That’s right, “Good For Racing.”
One of the significant questions American Pharoah faced heading into Saturday’s $1.5 million Xpressbet.com Preakness Stakes was how he’d fare coming back in two weeks after the toughest race of his young life. The Kentucky Derby winner seemed poised to handle that test, looking more than just formidable as he trained this week and a standout in the small Preakness field despite an less-than-preferred inside post-position draw.
Hall of Famers D. Wayne Lukas, Bob Baffert and Gary Stevens probably know better than most the significance of a horse going for a sweep of the Triple Crown. They know that the potential of a sweep gives racing a welcome bit of publicity, yet they also know there are equal if not greater factors at work when 3-year-olds contest our country’s classics every spring.
The progeny of a pair of Relaunch grandsons dominated the stakes action last weekend in Southern California, while the Southwest region saw the first juvenile stakes winner of the year.
When Beholder scratched from Saturday’s Grade 1 Vanity Stakes at Santa Anita Park, the race was widely conceded to Warren’s Veneda. They just forgot to tell Mike Smith and My Sweet Addiction. The pair shrugged off multiple challenges to gain the coveted victory under the gaze of the San Gabriel Mountains.
We’re in Baltimore and on the grounds at Pimlico Race Course prepping for Saturday’s Xpressbet Preakness Stakes. People are talking and they’re joking even more, especially during Thursday’s traditional Alibi Breakfast.
American Pharoah, Firing Line and Dortmund – the three leading contenders for the $1.5 million Preakness and the first three finishers in the Kentucky Derby- were on the track Thursday and that certainly got people chatting about their chances.
I thought I knew about steeplechase racing. After all, I’ve seen more Grade 1 steeplechase races at Saratoga over the years than I can count. And if you’ve seen the best of the best meeting at Saratoga every summer, then what more is there you need to know?
After my first visit to the Iroquois Steeplechase last weekend in Nashville, I can tell you the short answer is plenty.
Relative calm gave way to anxious excitement Thursday at Pimlico Race Course as the major players for Saturday’s Xpressbet.com Preakness Stakes took the track for the first time since arriving in Baltimore. A little while later the mood turned again, to outright hilarity at times, during the Alibi Breakfast as Hall of Fame trainers King Leatherbury and D. Wayne Lukas stole the show with not-so-impromptu stand-up comedy routines.
Kentucky Derby winner American Pharoah, safely well off the dreaded rail two weeks ago in Louisville, will start from that spot Saturday when he bids for the second jewel of the Triple Crown in the 140th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course.
One day away from entries being taken for the 140th Preakness Stakes and the field continued to take shape Tuesday.
