Preakness Lack of Interest
 

How come it has become so hard to get excited about the Preakness and Triple Crown?

Like let me compare during Smarty Jones era. People were having cookouts, bbqs, etc and getting hyped up for later that day when Smarty Jones ran. The atmosphere was electric when he won and excitement awaited for the Belmont.

Now you have Justify. Nobody cares, nobody is talking about it. Hell majority of people are rooting against Justify just for the notion, "I hate seeing rich people win"

I understand that 100% of your top horses are owned by rich people and/or groups. It just cycles through social media of the types of people are nowdays. You didn't have social media during Smarty Jones era, and were rooting for the horse and had no care about who the owner was.

I know one of you guys will bring up Preakness had the largest attendance last year. But its deflated for many reasons...

1.) The track paid millions in dollars to have Top Artist come in for the concerts. 40 to 50% of the crowd came for this

2.) Beer... I think its what $20 or $30 to drink all you want?


If there was no concerts you'd have seen one of the lowest attendance Preakness races. Just look at the tv ratings of last years Preakness.

To end this... Its hard to root for a horse with a billionaire owner who is a royal piece of shit at the end of the day. Same goes for American Pharoah.

When Secretariat ran you had this vision that the owner was this sweet charm lady and it was an amazing story.. Yes I know she was rich, but it wasn't talked about like today's rich owners are.

Today's Triple Crown races have lost the closeness you felt to the people around the horse. You see it as corporate enterprises essentially.

Horse Racing is very similar to the way NASCAR is now.

For me, after the Derby, the Preakness and Belmont feel just like another races.

I think in the Preakness its a bit of Derby hangover.

In the Belmont, lets be honest, its run at a distance and usually has a field of horses who often times never do much after winning that race. Not always, but seems like more often than not.

I think the best thing about the Belmont Stakes is the under card, its a mini breeders cup.

The way owners/trainers pull derby horses except for a few leaves the field a mix-bag imo. My main interest anymore is to see if the derby winner can move on.
Personally I've never liked Pimlico, and I've always felt the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miile was out of order with the other 2 races. I realize its always been that way, but why not 1 3/8 mile in a stepladder format to the mile and half at Belmont?

Preakness works for me. :ThmbUp:

I'm also a Marylander ( late 80s/early 90s childhood memories watching styrofoam cooler brawls on the infield, and trying to start Arsenio Hall 'whoop' cheers in the tunnel).

Also doesn't hurt that I got lucky on Derby day this year, and spent most of my winnings over the past week or so. I feel like I ran in the Derby and just now starting to get back to reality and focus. Need to find that luck again, about now.


Can definitely see how the Derby is the main event, and then occasionally the Belmont when the Triple Crown is on the line. Kinda have to have the racing bug and be into the current crop to be loving the Preakness.

Preakness is the best weekend of the year for me.
Pimlico Special has always been my favorite race and Preakness right behind it. I love Pimlico.

Derby is just a fun race to watch and look for long shots, but I rate it as a throw away, meaningless race. Too many have no reasons to be in it, just egos of owners, and winners used to be just as lucky as talented. Best thing about Derby is you can find horse later on who finally get placed in reasonable races and look bad on form so you can get prices.

The Belmont, unless the TC in on the line, I have no use for it at all. Such a pathetic race, they had to ruin a month of other weekends to bring in enough other stakes to prop it up. Lose it in the crown and hope no one notices. :rolleyes:

The Preakness is the only TC race I would ever go see in person.
I actually did go in '79 to see Spectacular Bid. Went to the track Friday and the traffic was so bad getting out, I watched the race from my motel room in Hershey and spent the day itself at Chocolate Town! :p

Is it jut me, or does Britney Eurton looks like a Pan Am stewardess today?

Coffee or tea?:D

Just got really interested in the BE Susan

Red Ruby should take this one.

Tip o' the hat to CJ and his pace figures.

This horse was a layover in term of pace, IMHO.

Last race dwarfed anything this field has run well against before.
And won in the lsop before.

Interest back. Tomorrow's card purchased! :ThmbUp:

Good Magic at least makes things interesting.
Otherwise the Preakness sucks.
So does Pimlico. I've been there and it's nothing to talk about.

They better shut it down as soon as they can and run at Laurel.
Also, add some time between TC races and you might get a decent Preakness.

Otherwise this race is a dud.

ive been going for 13 years and couldnt agree more..tix are in the family for over 30 yrs so ill go till im dead but the experience is pretty bad..toga and keeneland are waaaaaaaaay better for waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay less

It's been a few years since I went to a Preakness, but I've never been a Pimlico fan. I went to my first Preakness in 1974, when Little Current beat the field by daylight. He's not a well remembered horse because of his 5th place finish in the Derby to Canonade, but he was totally up against it that day. He was last of 23 horses going into the backstretch, but made a good enough run to warrant a Preakness start. After winning the Preakness he went to the Belmont and won there by seven lengths. Those two performances got him the Eclipse Award as 3YO of the Year. Unfortunately he chipped a bone prepping for the Arc d'Triomphe and retired to a good career as a stud. I'll always have a soft spot for him.

One day I'll go and it won't rain.

Answer this for me. Can Pimlico sell the rights to the Preakness to any track they want?

I'd love to see the Preakness ran at Keeneland... The Belmont Stakes ran at Saratoga(Saratoga Stakes). Two of the nicest tracks in the United States.

Let me rephrase no track comes close to Keeneland.

I've never been to Pimlico but my buddy has went a few times and said it looks like a war zone around the track in terms of the housing.

Also I'd love to see them spread out the time for TC races like you mentioned. I see no issues in separating them by a month. You'd see an influx of more horses also.

I think you'll see a change to the TC format after the Preakness goes to Laurel.

Pimlico won't change the timing because it gets the college kids to party before they go on a break.

Laurel will be a different thing entirely.

Mark my words.

Denny

I believe Stronarch has the rights to Preakness. He could take it wherever he wanted. Just like when Oak Tree left santa anita they took all the race names.