The Kentucky Derby victory of Orb placed a rightful spotlight on the inspiring history of the Phipps family stable, tracing its pre-World War II roots to the ongoing success of the current generation. At times, it sounded as if it was the last surviving family stable of a bygone era.

If there was a better losing performance last year than Obviously’s third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, it didn’t make the headlines. After taking the star-studded field through three increasingly hot quarters in 23.34 seconds, 22.82, and 22.65, Obviously was still fighting like an overgrown alley cat when Wise Dan and then Animal Kingdom came along in the final stages. Wise Dan won by 1 1/2 lengths in a Santa Anita course-record 1:31.78, while Animal Kingdom beat Obviously by just half a length for second money.

Scott Stevens finished riding his three horses through the Minnesota mud at Canterbury Park last Saturday afternoon just in time to gather in the room with the other jocks to witness little brother Gary take Skyring wire to wire in the Dixie Handicap on the Pimlico undercard. Scott enjoyed the view, then proclaimed:

“Now watch him do the same thing right back in the Preakness.”

BALTIMORE — “I don’t wake up in the morning and say that I have to prove I can train a horse,” Wayne Lukas said at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday night.

But if the 77-year-old Hall of Famer still has full confidences in his abilities, most people would say that Lukas’s time has passed. More than 15 years have elapsed since he dominated American racing as no one ever had before. He revolutionized Thoroughbred training by being the first person to run a truly national operation and he smashed every significant record in his profession.

Among the items in the Hollywood Park garage sale that will take place at some point after the track says sayonara in December will be a prime collection of 37 graded stakes events of all colors, shapes, and sizes.

Think of them as classic vinyl, the album sleeves a little worn, waiting to be Spotified for a new generation.

LAS VEGAS – No sooner had Orb crossed the Kentucky Derby finish line two weeks ago than the talk turned to whether he has what it takes to become horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner since 1978.

I was only 6 when Secretariat captured the nation’s fancy in 1973, so it was Affirmed’s Triple Crown run five years later that gave me my real first exposure to the sport. Of course, with three Triple Crown winners in those six years, no one at that point in time (how’s that for a 1970s/post-Watergate Era reference?) could have predicted we would go on such a long drought.

The horse race called the Preakness Stakes has been run 137 times, dating back to 1873, only it’s tough to take the first couple dozen versions very seriously.

After Orb scored his decisive victory in the Kentucky Derby and was hailed as a bright new star of racing, many handicappers had a reason for skepticism. They had seen this scenario before.

The Kentucky Derby often unfolds in a way that gives an advantage to horses rallying from far behind. The winner comes to Pimlico amidst acclaim, but the Preakness isn't run like the Derby and it doesn't favor his style. Another Triple Crown bid is foiled, and skeptical bettors are rewarded.

In many years, a Kentucky Derby winner who won the roses on a wet track with a modest Beyer Speed Figure of 104 would be only a tepid favorite for the second leg of the Triple Crown. On Saturday, however, Orb will be even money or less in the 138th Preakness Stakes – and it’s hard to argue with either his price or his prospects of victory.

Beware how you treat the classics. When it comes to outsiders tilting at the cathedrals of culture, true believers can go medieval in a heartbeat.

Film director Baz Luhrmann has learned this through the critical lashings applied to his amped-up version of “The Great Gatsby” (Salon’s Michael O’Hehir placed it with other “baroque, overblown, megalomaniacal spectacles”), and on a very different canvas NBC’s Rob Hyland is treading an invisible line between invention and heresy with his production of the Triple Crown events.