After the infamous Derby DQ two years ago, after the disruptions caused by the coronavirus last year, the sport of racing seemed set to enjoy a panic-free Triple Crown run this year.

How wrong that notion turned out to be.

BALTIMORE – With Keepmeinmind, trainer Robertino Diodoro is enjoying his first Triple Crown experience. He doesn’t expect it to be his last.

“I haven’t left here and I’m already itching to get back,” Diodoro said Thursday morning at Pimlico where on Saturday he planned to start Keepmeinmind in the $1 million Preakness.

Diodoro, who made his reputation as a claiming trainer, said he is getting better stock and has 2-year-olds by top sires such as Into Mischief and Medaglia d’Oro that he hopes can get him back on the trail next year.

BALTIMORE – Once was, a whole lot of Kentucky Derby runners would run back two weeks later in the Preakness Stakes. But with modern-day horsemen preferring more time between races, it has become increasingly common for just a handful of Derby starters – if not fewer – to resurface in the second leg of the Triple Crown at Pimlico Race Course.

They had just crossed the finish line in the $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks, with John Velazquez and Malathaat outfinishing Irad Ortiz Jr. and Search Results by a neck. The vanquished Ortiz, the three-time reigning Eclipse champion jockey, patted Velazquez multiple times on the back and then reached for his hand to congratulate him.

“I had to congratulate him,” Ortiz, 28, said this week. “I told him, ‘You are our teacher.’ It came from my heart, honestly. I respect him.

BALTIMORE – So much for a return to normalcy.

After being run in October as the third leg of the Triple Crown and in front of an empty grandstand in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Preakness has been restored to its rightful place on the calendar – the third Saturday in May. There will be fans allowed on-site, albeit just 10,000 on a day when typically more than 100,000 are in attendance.

BALTIMORE – Over the last quarter-century, the Preakness has been the most accurate predictor of which 3-year-old will wind up being named the divisional champion – even more than the Kentucky Derby. Since 1996, 16 of the last 25 Preakness winners have been voted the top 3-year-old that year, and that doesn’t even include Rachel Alexandra, the 2009 Horse of the Year and top 3-year-old filly, and Swiss Skydiver, the top 3-year-old filly of 2020.

One day before Rombauer runs in the Preakness Stakes, his older half-brother Treasure Trove will contest the Grade 3 Pimlico Special.

The 3-year-old Rombauer, by Twirling Candy, and the 5-year-old gelding Treasure Trove, by Tapizar, were both bred in Kentucky by John and Diane Fradkin. They are third-generation products of that program, which began when John Fradkin purchased the Afleet mare Ultrafleet for $10,500 as a yearling in 1993.

Several Maryland-breds, including defending winner Harpers First Ride, will fly the flag for their home state in the Grade 3 Pimlico Special on Friday.

Harpers First Ride won the Deputed Testamony last year at Laurel to propel him into the Pimlico Special, which he won last October. He concluded a fine season in his home state by finishing second in the Maryland Million Classic before winning two more stakes at Laurel.

Mandy Pope has spent well over $50 million on broodmares for her Whisper Hill Farm operation in the last nine Novembers at Kentucky’s elite sales. The total purse of Saturday’s Preakness Stakes is $1 million, with $600,000 going to the winning connections. But a victory by Pope’s homebred Unbridled Honor would be priceless.

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BALTIMORE – On an otherwise quiet morning amidst the chaos hovering over Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, France Go de Ina, the Japanese invader, gave his connections a bit of a scare at the conclusion of his training session Wednesday at Pimlico.