The 135th Preakness Stakes will run today in Catonsville, Maryland, right outside of Baltimore at Pimlico Race Track. The length of the course is 1 3/16 miles. This will be the second leg of the coveted Triple Crown. There has not been a Triple Crown Winner since Affirmed in 1978. The 70’s was good decade for Triple Crown winners. We also got Seattle Slew in 1977 and Secretariat in 1973.
Calvin Borel will ride Super Saver, winner of the Kentucky Derby 2 weeks ago. This time Borel will not be trading horses like he did last year. Major contenders right now seem to be Lookin at Lucky who had some difficulty at the Kentucky Derby as well as other races. He has a new jockey for this race. Paddy O’Prado will also run. He finished third in the Derby. The official flower of the Preakness Stakes in the Maryland State Flower, the Black Eyed Susan.
Calvin Borel, the Cajun jockey, is quite a character. He is also the only jockey to win 2 legs of the Triple Crown on different mounts. In 2009,he won the Kentucky Derby on Mine That Bird and the Preakness on Rachel Alexandra, a filly.
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I was so hoping to see Calvin Borel win at Pimlico. 🙁
No triple crown again this year. Bummer.
I agree Lafayette. Maybe he needed to lose though. Maybe he will come back a stronger jockey.
I thought this might be the year for a Triple Crown, but we’ll have to wait another year at least.
We have been waiting too many years if you ask me–over 30 years.
My wife and I couldn’t help but recall the tragic episode with Barbaro four years ago. It was interesting to see what happened with Super Saver–he kinda got hemmed in but then just seemed to run out of gas and that is sort of what Calvin said. And when that happens you can’t push the horse or you have the possibility of something terrible happening. Better to pull up and live to race another day.
He did just run out of gas. I didn’t see that strong of a horse in the Derby. I saw a strong, crafty jockey.
Thank goodness Super Saver will live to race another day.
Super Saver sounds like a grocery store.
Never had much interest in horse racing myself until that time some years ago when a horse from Venezuela named Canonero Segundo pulled record-breaking upsets in both the Derby and the Preakness. Seldom does one see such excitement as there was at the Belmont Stakes that year. People came up by the planeload from Venezuela. Then there was the heartbreak of a defeat at the Stakes — also, as I recall, because of some kind of physical problem experienced by Canonero. I’ve been hooked on the Triple Crown ever since.