Preakness more than just a horse race

By Mark Giannotto
Daily Sports Writer  On  May 20th, 2007

On Saturday afternoon, Curlin took home a victory in the Preakness Stakes, edging out Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense by just a nose, and subsequently ending any hope of a Triple Crown this year. The photo finish was one of the most thrilling in recent Triple Crown history.

Well, at least that's what someone told me as I was walking out of the infield to the school bus I rented with 44 others.

If somebody who watched the NBC telecast of the race asked me how Street Sense died (not the Barbaro way) down the stretch, allowing Curlin to out-kick him, I would have shrugged my shoulders and responded, 'OK, you probably know better than I do.'

In fact, I just read in The Washington Post this morning that a horse was euthanized on the track Saturday afternoon (in the Barbaro way). That was news to me.

Last year, I didn't even find out that Barbaro might have died until I got home and my dad told me what happened.

And that gets to the root of the difference between the other Triple Crown races (the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes) and the Preakness.

See, the Kentucky Derby is like that Chop House dinner with the parents. The Preakness is that slice of Backroom you know is not good for you, but you just need to have.

Yes, there are people in fancy clothes and there is an official drink (the Black-Eyed Susan) at the Preakness in the same manner that the Kentucky Derby is known for the huge hats, sundresses and Mint Juleps.

But at the Preakness, all of that classist, traditional horse racing stuff ends once you leave the grandstands. The infield is where the real fun happens.

A person watching on television does not get a real sense of what it is like from the Goodyear blimp view that shows the masses in attendance. In reality, the infield is a gathering of more than 100,000 people who start drinking when the gates open at 8 a.m. and don't stop until the race is over at 6:30 p.m.

For those of you who aren't the best at math, that's over 10 hours of boozing. It's what Michigan football pregames would be like if the administration allowed night games at the Big House.

I know what you're thinking - 10 hours of drinking can get pretty expensive. And it would be if the Preakness were like the other Triple Crown races, where the beer is eight bucks a cup and the liquor is even more. But those in charge at Pimlico Race Course do us the service of allowing beer to be brought into the premises, as long as it stays on the infield and it's in cans.

So when you go to Preakness, you need to make sure there are plenty of people to carry all of that alcohol. (If you're lazy, there are always the local kids who offer to help out for a minimal fee - using stolen shopping carts.)

Let's retrace our steps here. We're at the Preakness, in the infield, with as much beer as you are willing to carry in. Obviously there are some crazy things that go on. I figured I'd share a few with you in order to give you a real sense of what happens with this many people and this much booze.

There were the two college-aged kids who decided to sprint on top of one of the endless rows of port-o-potties, and were consequently nailed with countless amounts of full beer cans until they fell off.

And inside those same port-o-potties, there were bound to be some boys and girls taking advantage of the beer goggles they had developed over the course of the day. Remember, the unspoken rule of Preakness is: "You're not a true member of the infield until you do something you'll regret the next day."

But the mayhem was not limited to just the drunk people. Even the sober Baltimore County policemen, when asked by good looking college girls, took and were a part of however many pictures in whichever poses the girls wanted.

Then those same girls got tricked by the guys they were with to sit on top of their shoulders "to get a better view of the track." When that happened, the males in the infield united in a chant of "show your tits."

Where there's horse racing, there must be gambling. And Pimlico doesn't disappoint, offering countless betting propositions to lose your money.

Preakness officials are not stupid. They know the drunken masses are bound to bet on the Derby winner from two weeks ago, in this case Street Sense, and they make that horse an overwhelming favorite. I put $20 on Hard Spun simply because I wouldn't have felt complete if I went to a Triple Crown race and didn't bet.

Not everyone comes out a loser though. People in my group had winnings as small as $10 and as large as $2000.

And just like the race itself, the scene in the infield is all about winners and losers. There are the winners who make a ton of money and end up making a profit, even with all of the beer they bought. And then there are the losers who get too drunk too fast and pass out by 1 p.m.

I asked my friend Zac, a nine-year infield veteran and recent Michigan alum, why he poured an entire cup of beer on a random girl who was passed out on the ground at 2 p.m. His response, "A lot worse could've happened to her," pretty much summed up the day's events.

A lot worse could have happened to me at the Preakness.

But it didn't. And that's why I'll be back again next year.

Printed from www.michigandaily.com on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:33:58 -0500