The 133rd running of the Preakness is set for Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course May 17. The Belmont will be Saturday, June 7 at Elmont, N.Y. The Preakness and Belmont represent the middle and third jewels of thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown.
No horse has won the Triple Crown in 30 years. The last was Affirmed in 1978. Jimmy Carter was president. Gas was around 65 cents a gallon. In its more-than-125-years, only 10 have won it. That puts it alongside baseball's home run record or the four-minute mile. Mount Everest looms.
The public becomes swept up in the quest for immortality " in this case, that of a horse running around a track. It may be presumptuous to again say that 2008 is the year they remove three decades of dust from the crown. A handful has come close " Real Quiet lost it by a whisker in 1998. But no brass ring.
That could change with Big Brown. He wowed the racing world by coming from an astonishing outside (20) postposition to win the Kentucky Derby, the first jewel in the crown. Big Brown was undefeated and his Derby win so convincing that hope springs eternal among the faithful for the crown. May 17 beckons.
In the meantime, there's Eight Belles, the filly that ran second to Big Brown.
The racing world today is in turmoil over her death. For a number of reasons.
Fillies aren't supposed to run well against males. She outran 18. She was on the ground well beyond the finish line and track vets reached for the needle. What amounts to an autopsy will shed more light on what really happened. But the timing puzzled veterans. The race was over and Eight Belles was a quarter mile past the finish line. Her front ankles broke in the meltdown after the race.
Everyone wants to know why then?
But more important was the very public nature of her death on a track in front of the stands and millions more on TV. It prompted an outpouring of anger and a few who swore off racing forever. Eight Belles came in the wake of other euthanizations of horses either racing or taking part in games, like the Rolex.
The heart-wrenching story of Barbaro " winner of the 2006 Kentucky Derby who came up lame in the Preakness " was revived. There was a drawn out effort to save him that ultimately failed. The public focused on the drama.
All of this brought to the front issues that had been bubbling for some time on the soundness of racing " synthetic track vs. dirt, running females against males, whipping contributing to death, breeding for speed trumping safety and drugs becoming agents to mask troubles. There was a demand by some animal rights activists to ban racing.
The thoroughbred industry will sort through all of this " it is not without profound concern for its welfare " and racing will survive. To call for its banishment over what happened Thursday is ludicrous and ignores the fact that fatalities " to humans " in a number of sports from baseball to mountain climbing resulted in better safety and an educated public " not oblivion.
Everything wonderful and enduring about horse racing will be on display May 17 and again in June. If Big Brown wins everything, it will be among the greatest triumphs of the year, even the decade. Right along with Eight Belle's heart.
That's what it's all about.