The 1993 season in Thoroughbred racing produced a juicy reel of highlights, with history made left and right. But in the end it belonged to Michael Earl Smith, the kid from New Mexico who had taken New York by storm.

BALTIMORE – As expected on a huge day, Pimlico will be offering a wide range of wagering options Friday on the 14-race card.

Foremost is the start of the Black-Eyed Susan-Preakness double, a two-day wager linking the biggest races here Friday and Saturday. Last year, when Actress and Cloud Computing were the respective winners, the double lured $793,718 in handle and resulted in a $368.80 payoff for $2.

BALTIMORE – Aside from Lone Sailor exiting the Kentucky Derby in great shape, Tom Amoss felt compelled to try the Preakness with him for another reason: the slow closing times in the Derby.

“It seems like nobody is talking about it,” said Amoss.

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Proven sires are in good number in the short field for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, including Distorted Humor and Curlin, each seeking his third classics winner.

It was only five years ago that Oxbow won the Preakness Stakes after finishing sixth in the Kentucky Derby, giving Calumet Farm another victory in the Triple Crown series in its first full year of ownership by Brad Kelley.

Now the Calumet empire brings in Bravazo, bred on the same cross as Oxbow and looking to emulate him by stepping up in the Preakness after also finishing sixth in the Derby.

BALTIMORE – Theirs has become a mutual-admiration society, and a very exclusive one at that. Bob Baffert and D. Wayne Lukas have returned to Pimlico this week to take another shot at the Preakness, and a win by either would tie a record that has stood for 130 years.

Baffert and Lukas each has won the Preakness six times, just one shy of the record for trainers held by R. Wyndham Walden. The last Preakness win for Walden came in 1888, or well before the Black-Eyed Susan became the official Preakness drink or anyone had ever dreamed up a creature named Kegasus.

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Kentucky Derby runner-up Good Magic got a little warm while galloping about 1 3/8 miles on a humid Tuesday morning, the colt’s first day over the Pimlico main track, as he continues preparation for Saturday’s $1.5 million Preakness Stakes and a rematch with Justify.

“He’s usually like that, but I think it’s his first day, I’m not concerned about it,” said Walter Malasquez, Good Magic’s exercise rider. “He was fine today.”

BALTIMORE – D. Wayne Lukas jogged both of his Preakness horses, Sporting Chance and Bravazo, over a muddy Pimlico track early Tuesday morning. Lukas and his horses pulled into Pimlico at 3:30 p.m. Monday following an 11 1/2-hour van ride from Churchill Downs.

Lukas accompanied Sporting Chance to and from the track on his pony soon after Pimlico opened for training at 5:30 a.m. He then did the same with Bravazo.

The 158-year-old Woodlawn Vase, symbolic of victory in the Preakness Stakes, is commonly valued at $1 million. That’s nice round number assuring its place in opening paragraphs such as this.

The vase lives in the Baltimore Art Museum and is carefully trotted out each third Saturday in May to be on display at Pimlico for the second jewel of the Triple Crown. Winning owners can look, and even touch, but they can’t take it home.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bob Baffert had been back at his Churchill Downs barn for maybe an hour Monday morning before he finally noticed the new plaque on the cement-block wall commemorating the 2018 Kentucky Derby victory by Justify.

“It’s already up there, huh?” he said, adding with a laugh “They need to extend this wall.”