Preakness Today, With Only Four from Kentucky Derby

Sports writer Neil Greenberg, in his May 15 article for the Washington Post, mentioned that with today's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico race track in Baltimore, Maryland, it will be the first time in 23 years that the Kentucky Derby winner did not participate in the second jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown...and the first time in 68 years that none of the top three finishers in that first race competed in the Preakness.  Add to that the fact that the first horse to cross the finish line in the Derby, Maximum Security...disqualified from a foul due to the Kentucky Racing Commission's postrace inquiry...will not be running today, either.  The result is a large-but-depleted field of thirteen in the Preakness, with only four horses who ran in the Kentucky Derby scheduled to run...

Improbable, one of successful trainer Bob Baffert's horses and who officially finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby, is the early favorite to win the Preakness.  Mike Smith, who rode Justify (another Baffert thoroughbred) to Triple Crown glory last year, will be Improbable's jockey.  War of Will, with the number one post position in this shortest of the Triple Crown races, was the horse involved in the foul that disqualified Maximum Security and is given favorable odds as well.  I'm not seeing anything standing out to me from the other eleven horses, so I'm just going to look at these two...besides, how can you miss with Bob Baffert and Mike Smith on the same team?

The projected post time for the Preakness today is 6:48 pm and the preliminary weather forecasts show a slight chance of rain, but nothing like the precipitation that thoroughly muddied the Kentucky Derby track two weeks ago.  NBC-Sports (Gainesville Cox Channel 33) will show pre-race analysis and hype from 2 to 5 pm, and from 5 on the regular NBC channel will pick up the programming.  I'm planning to watch the race, but not the hype...