It's Preakness Baby!

It was wet. It was wild. And it was all Preakness.

For the last four and a half years, I've lived within about 5 miles of the famed Pimlico track, but have never seen the Preakness in person. Part of that of course is that up until recently, I haven't had a Saturday off in the last 6 years. Today, I decided to take advantage of my new found free time and finally see the Preakness.

After getting to track and placing my bets, I looked for my spot to watch the race. I asked someone at one of the gates where the general admission section was and they said, "just find a place to watch". Everywhere I looked, I saw colored sections and people with colored tickets heading to those sections. Then I noticed that the ushers really weren't paying attention to those tickets. So about 15 minutes before post-time, I just decided to walk out into the seats on final stretch and see what happened. I'm still not sure if I was supposed to be there, but no one stopped me. Not wanting to push my luck, I just stood in the large aisleway between the box seats and the rows of temporary seats next to the track. And that is where I watched the race. It was awesome, but it was over way too quickly. Preakness truly is about the experience because the race itself is over in the blink of an eye. I was so close, I even managed to get some great photos.

Just seconds after the start of the race.

And down the stretch they come. Street Sense is still leading at this point, but Curlin is closing fast. My pick for show, Hard Spun is right behind.