TD on the Preakness
After the disaster that was me picking a Kentucky Derby winner, you would think that I would wise up. Well that isn’t the case. Just like the Captain of the Titanic who stood at the wheel as the waters poured in around him, I will also go down with the perverbial ship. I said I would pick all three races of the Triple Crown and I’m not about to give up now. The only consolation to all of this is that at least my crappy picks are only taking up room in cyberspace, and no trees are dying over this useless information.
But before we get into my pick (I’m sure you are all waiting with baited breathe) I want to touch on the Preakness. The Preakness means a lot to me. I have gone countless times, and most of my friends have at least one Preakness experience under their belt. But never before has a Preakness occured under such uncertainty. Magna who owns Pimlico is under bankrupcy and no one is quite sure what the future of the track (or horse racing in Maryland) is going to be.
Horse Racing is important to our state. It isn’t just the romantic notion of the horse thundering down the track, but it keeps many farms alive and kicking, and that is what makes it worth saving. Every farm we can save via racing is preventing future development of our open space and the thus reducing the amount of money we need to build new roads, schools, and hospitals to accomidate that new growth. So the investment in Maryland racing is well worth it in my book. But because I don’t ever want to get into politics on this site, and this is sort of toeing the line I’ll stop there.
But the sad thing is, as troubled the outlook for Maryland racing looks, the Preakness is going on at the worse possible time. The economy is down, no one really believes Mine that BIrd is a Triple Crown threat, and the BYOB policy is DOA.
Now I love the Preakness, BYOB or not. The Preakness is great because there is no “Snobby” feel too it like there is at the Kentucky Derby. No one is pretending to be what they are not. The Preakness also has the advantage of being the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown, which means there will never be a Preakness run where there isn’t a chance at a Triple Crown! And those two things are key in my opinion.
But what hurts the most is the BYOB ban. I don’t think we realized how good we had it at Preakness, I mean honestly how many sporting events can you carry in Radio Flyers full of Bud Lights? Not many. But I’ll be the first to admit that by the time I attended my last infield party, things were getting out of hand. When I witnessed drunks throwing full cans of beer into the air, it was an awakening for me. After that I was out, I mean it isn’t worth it.
But reading the newspapers I am stunned with how sad people are about the death of the BYOB policy. And you know what they are right. I’m changing my mind about all of this. I think BYOB is a good policy that needs to be re-instated. I always viewed it as a policy decision, but now I see it more as the death of a tradition. The hard reality is that BYOB isn’t coming back, and the truth of the matter was that we as 18-25 year olds were given this great event, and we basically ruined it with our behavior (at least some did anyway).
But there is a solution, and I think the people in charge of planning the Preakness are aware of it. All you have to do is sell beer at a fair price. At the Kentucky Derby it was like 6$ for a Dixie Cup. That sucked. Not only do you not enjoy your dixie cup, you felt cheated. The word on the street is beers at the Preakness are going to be $3.50 (if I had my way it would be $2), and there will be a happy hour in the morning where they are $1. That is good. But it leads to the next point. Opening my cooler and getting a beer, takes 2 seconds, waiting in line to get a beer, well that is another problem that will have to be ironed out.
Anway to wrap this all up, the Preakness is the most important day of the year for Maryland Racing, it funds all the other days by itself. For those who make the decisions at the Preakness, don’t mess this up. If BYOB is gone and not coming back, don’t use this new found monopoly to turn people off. That is all I ask.
Back to my pick. My pick for today is Friesan Fire (Friedgen Fire anyone?). This horse was king of the world at this time last week, and just because he couldn’t win the 20 horse stampede that is the Kentucky Derby (another reason why the Preakness is better), doesn’t mean he isn’t the same horse who was so heavily favored last week. Now with Rachel Alexandra and Mine that BIrd taking betting money away from him, he is going off at 6-1. Not a bad price, not a bad price at all.
Extra Droppings:
Snake sighting…I think we are up to 5 now? This one was particularly scary because as my wife was unloading groceries, our 17 month old daughter found this and was pointing to it from about 2 feet away. Kristin went over to look at what she was pointing at and the snake was coiled up in the standard “Don’t tread on me” position, ready to strike. Luckily for my daughter, my wife was there and she didn’t flee into the next county like I would have done. She slowly scooped her up and carried her inside. As for the snake. It climbed the tree next to our house and as of sundown last night, was still sleeping up in it. Anyone want to buy a house?
Below is a picture of it climbing the tree:
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