Preakness Morning Notes

- Great line by Hank Goldberg, who, after describing his $120 worth of bets for the Pimlico Special, said: "That's a buck twenty. I'm a little short, but so is Hillary, and she puts her own money in." He won me over with that line. (To him, not to Hillary.) He didn't have the winner though, as Student Council rallied from very far back turning for home to catch the speedy Gottcha Gold, who pretty much had things his own way. You let that horse go 1:11 and change on any kind of racetrack and he's gonna be hard to track down. So quite an effort by the winner.

- Reader jk directed us to this fascinating piece on breeding issues by Bill Nack, who did a great piece during the ESPN broadcast yesterday. I'm sure they'll repeat it today since they're on from 11 until 5 between the two networks. It was one of those 'the Preakness gets no respect' things, and he highlighted three editions which are truly classics. He called Secretariat's move on the first turn the "single greatest moment in Preakness history," noting that he went from last to first in 300 yards. Next was the gripping stretch duel between Sunday Silence and Easy Goer, which I'd have to say is my favorite. He made an interesting observation I'd never heard before, showing a closeup of Pat Day shaking up the reigns one last time, and wondering if he grabbed too much, thus causing the horse's head to turn in towards Sunday Silence and perhaps costing him the race.

And the final one was the stumble by Afleet Alex in 2005. We certainly don't want to see anything like that happen today.

The sun has been out here, and I see that's the case in Baltimore too, so I'm handicapping for fast tracks all around, and getting out to Belmont for awhile myself. Best of luck and have a great day!

- New post up at The Rail.