Like many folks, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Preakness over the last few days. And no matter which way I look at the race, I’m having a difficult time right now coming up with anything other than this: If Nyquist runs his typical race, and certainly if he duplicates his Kentucky Derby, no one is going to beat him in the Preakness.

The Donn is dead, or so reads the fine print on the announcement this week of plans to run the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park in January.

In order to secure a Grade 1 rating for the 1 1/8-mile main-track event, which is advertising a purse of $12 million plus incentives, track officials had to cannibalize one of their existing Grade 1 events that most closely matched the proposed conditions of the Pegasus World Cup’s nine furlongs on dirt. That race was the Donn Handicap, named for the family that owned and operated Gulfstream Park from 1944 until 1989.

On Dec. 28, 2009, at Chepstow Racecourse in Wales, the 8-year-old gelding Dream Alliance won the Welsh Grand National for a 23-owner syndicate hailing from the little town of Cefn Fforest. The winner’s purse was about $82,000.

Three months later, on the night of March 27, 2010, at the sparkling new Meydan racing complex in Dubai, Kinsale King won the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen for owner Frank Sheehy and trainer Carl O’Callaghan, both sons of Ireland.

It seems sacrilegious to write about anything other than the Kentucky Derby on the Monday after the Kentucky Derby. All story angles of any note have a way of threading back to Nyquist and his Zen-like dismissal of 19 Derby opponents, so helpless in the face of his commitment to never losing.

Consider these finish positions in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby:

Third, beaten 4 1/2 lengths (was fifth a half-stride past the wire).

10th, beaten 14 1/2 lengths.

12th, beaten 17 lengths.

14th, beaten 18 1/2 lengths.

15th, beaten 20 lengths.

19th, beaten 37 1/4 lengths.

Eased.

Once you have been to the Kentucky Derby – and this reporter has been to 21 of them, which is more than anyone deserves – trying to appreciate the race from afar is like watching “The Force Awakens” from the back row of the drive-in theater. You know there is something fascinating going on way off there on the horizon, but it’s hard to appreciate the details.

The central question of the 2016 Kentucky Derby is whether Nyquist is simply better than his 19 opponents or a vulnerable favorite in a subpar year.

The list of objects banned from Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day includes coolers, cans, glass bottles, laptops, tripods, selfie sticks, grills, alcohol, backpacks, luggage, wagons, umbrellas, weapons, fireworks, air horns, laser pointers, mace, pepper spray, drones, hoverboards, and animals, with the exception of service animals for patrons with disabilities. Cash is okay.

There will be a lot heard in Louisville this week about Wood Memorial runner-up Trojan Nation trying to become the first maiden to win the Kentucky Derby in 83 years. His arrival at Churchill Downs on Monday was sure to be greeted by winks and derision, while trainer Paddy Gallagher would be following on Tuesday. Was he ready for the ridicule?

“I’m used to that,” Gallagher said with a laugh.

Call me crazy, but I’ve always loved a good congressional hearing. They can be captivating, comic, enlightening, and embarrassing by turns. There is something about the setting, so earnest and formal, that creates an unavoidable impression that something very serious is going on, even when it’s not.