BALTIMORE — The Preakness Stakes is the easy leg of the Triple Crown, the one that 10 of the last 19 Kentucky Derby winners have rolled through triumphant to earn a ticket to New York and a date with destiny. Their owners and trainers treat this scuffed-up old track like a summer home — feasting on crab cakes and fried chicken as they await Saturday, surrendering to its shirt-sleeves-and-jeans embrace.
There are no swarming crowds in the mornings as there are in Kentucky before the Derby, no jangly nerves haunting the owners and trainers about whether their horses will live up to the expectations of America’s greatest race.