BALTIMORE - When Ride On Curlin crushed a field of Ellis Park maidens last July 13, a victory that produced an eye-catching speed figure, owner Daniel Dougherty and trainer Bill Gowan faced the classic question asked of small-scale owners with a clearly promising colt: Hold or sell. Low seven-figure offers at least were dangled, if not presented, but by the end of Ride On Curlin’s 2-year-old season, his connections had made their call: They were staying in. That’s the wrong call, the hard-eyed realists lecture. Always take the money. But Gowan and Dougherty, who purchased Ride On Curlin at auction for just $25,000, kept the horse, and Ride On Curlin on Saturday at Pimlico came within 1 1/2 of delivering a Preakness victory. “We could have sold him, but I’m just glad we’re standing here today,” said Gowan, planted on the Pimlico racetrack after Ride On Curlin had made a gallant run at California Chrome. Ride On Curlin ran near the back of the field for much of the race. For a flash, somewhere in midstretch, it looked like Ride On Curlin was bridging the gap on California Chrome. “Yeah, for a second I thought maybe, but Chrome kept on going,” Gowan said. Ride On Curlin generally is an easy horse to be around, but he has his quirks – the hot blood of Storm Cat, his dam’s sire, coming out. Saturday morning, as Ride On Curlin left the barn for an easy jog, he stood up on his hind legs, lashing out with his fore limbs as Gowan shouted at the colt to calm down. The studdish behavior comes and goes, but Ride On Curlin is the model of consistency in his racing. Until he finished a tough-luck seventh in the Derby, he had been no worse than fourth in nine starts, and even in the Derby, Ride On Curlin rallied from 14th at the stretch call, passing six horses. What Ride On Curlin has not done is win a major race. His two victories have come in that Ellis Park maiden race, and in a first-level allowance race at Oaklawn. But Ride On Curlin now has finished fourth or better in six graded stakes, and the $300,000 he earned Saturday pushed his bankroll over $700,000. That’s not small change, and just as meaningful is where Ride On Curlin has taken Gowan and Dougherty. Gowan, a Louisiana native, started training in 1994. He never has won more than seven races in a year, never has trained a string larger than 16 horses. And after 10 tries, he still has never won a graded stakes. But Ride On Curlin has carried Gowan to the first two legs of the Triple Crown, an experience he could hardly have dreamed at this time last year, and if all is well, Ride On Curlin, who never seems to take a step back, will make his next start in the Belmont Stakes. Gowan could not have been less downcast in defeat. He said he loves California Chrome and the colt’s people. If Ride On Curlin wasn’t going to win here today, Gowan wanted California Chrome to succeed. Gowan is proud of his horse and pleased with his finish. Yet somewhere inside the wave of good feeling, the image of Ride On Curlin looming at the furlong pole must still be drifting around. “Maybe at a mile and a half we can get him,” Gowan said.