Sidebar

[PhantomOnTour]

I'll just start by saying that my father has been a War Of Will fan since the spring. He's a box holder at FG and watched this colt run three times.

This race boiled down to two words for me: Brad Cox

Keyed his runners on top (Owendale and Warrior's Charge)with savers under WOW and Baffert....and AGAIN, they both ran admirably but weren't good enough. Rosario really ruined the party on Everfast as me and my father would have had a pretty sizeable 1-5 exacta with Owendale underneath. We all know what happened.

Nothing could be more fitting than my father hitting a big win bet on WOW.
If anyone in this world deserved to make a big score on the big race it's him.
He foots the bill for the tickets every year, won't let anyone pay for dinner, and gives money to his grandkids to bet the races. So, of course, he was handing out 100's to his grandkids after the race. I love that man and I'm so proud of him.
If this was our last hurrah then what a hurrah it was for him. Earl will be 80 next year (with two knee replacements) and Lord knows Pimlico doesn't make it easy on anyone to move about their facility on Preakness day. The sloped floors and cramped conditions are getting dangerous.
On the subject of Pimlico...the condemned grandstand was a blight and this place is literally crumbling before our eyes. More plumbing problems this year and very cramped walkways on the apron in upper stretch where we sat.
As a long time Pimlico defender it's time to admit defeat. Fix this place or move the race.

Finally, back to Castellano and Rosario. You can have all the Ortiz brothers you want; these two guys are the simply the best. Castellano was unstoppable on Fri (albeit on some beasts like Chalon & Covfefe) and he damn near got Gaffalione to make a big error on WOW and take the rail that Javier was offering for most of the Preakness. If Tyler tried on the backstretch Javier would have slammed the door on him and who knows what happens with WOW after that. Tyler wisely waited until Warriors Charge weakened a bit and drifted some in the lane..then he made his winning move. And here comes Joel on Everfast rolling late to spoil my winnings. He also rode Ulele to a 2nd place finish (behind Javier) in the Black Eyed Susan on Fri. I hated both of those runners. Joel is so strong!

That's all folks....another adventure in Charm City has ended.
I just wanna do this one more time with my father.