Mike Pons was about 100 yards past the wire when it happened.

The co-owner and manager of Country Life Farm was seated with his youngest son David and his older brother Andrew on the first turn at a rain-soaked Churchill Downs as he watched Orb charge down the middle of the track to win the 139th Kentucky Derby.

While the Kentucky Derby was the longest distance test for many of the horses coming back for the Preakness Stakes, the mile and three-sixteenths at Pimlico will be the second-longest challenge they have faced up to this point.

When analyzing contenders who have little or no on-track form at longer distances to base an opinion on, examining pedigrees can go a long way in helping separate horses from the pack.

DRF Breeding staff writer Joe Nevills analyzes the Preakness Stakes field, in post position order, in the form of Haiku; a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five.

Orb
The Derby winner
Replete with class on the track
Target’s on his back

Goldencents
Gets up off the mat
After tossing the towel
What’s left in the tank?

Justenuffheart, dam of champion Dreaming of Anna and two other graded stakes winners, recently died due to complications after foaling a Galileo colt, Mt. Brilliant Farm of Lexington, Ky., announced on Friday. The Broad Brush mare was 18.

A stakes winner herself, Justenuffheart produced four winners from six starters. Her third foal was Dreaming of Anna, a millionaire Rahy filly who won 10 of 17 starts, including the 2006 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies to lock up the divisional Eclipse Award that season.

Harley Hoppe, a Washington-based Thoroughbred owner, businessman and politician, died May 13 in his home on Mercer Island, Wash., according to an obituary in the Seattle Times. He was 82 years old.

Pyramid Peak, a multiple graded stakes winner and sire, was humanely euthanized on May 17 at Nuckols Farm in Midway, Ky., due to the infirmities of old age. The Mt. Livermore horse was 21.

Grade 1 winner and freshman sire Square Eddie was represented by his first winner Thursday at Hollywood Park, as the 2-year-old filly Sprouts romped to a 5 1/2-length win in a maiden special weight event.

Sprouts picked up her first win in her second career start, setting the early pace and drawing off readily. She covered 4 1/2–furlongs in :52.45 over Hollywood’s synthetic Cushion Track.

From a breeder’s point of view, the goal of horse racing, especially the 3-year-old classics, is to identify the colts with the highest potential as future stallions. In the 146-year history of the American Triple Crown races, there is no question that the Belmont Stakes has produced more leading sires than either the Kentucky Derby or the Preakness Stakes, but that is at least partly a historical artifact.

Eric Kronfeld, best known for breeding 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, died May 15 following a battle with cancer. He was 71.

Kronfeld, owner of a New York-based investment company, became involved with the racing industry in 1975 with the purchase of two horses in England. Among his initial successes was Mrs. Penny, a $40,000 yearling purchase who was named champion 2-year-old filly in England in 1979. The following year, she took the 3-year-old filly title after winning the French Oaks.

Popular jockey Rosie Napravnik has agreed to join the board of directors for the Old Friends Thoroughbred retirement group. The organization is based in Georgetown, Ky., with a satellite near Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

"Rosie is a wonderful representative of the sport, and she is one of the many jockeys who adore these horses," Old Friends founder and president Michael Blowen told the Off-Track Thoroughbreds website.