One of the main events was affectionately called the “Running of the Urinals,” where inebriated patrons dashed across the top of Porta Potties while other drunken fans pelted them with beer cans. Through 2008, this behavior and other raunchy acts were typical for the infield at Pimlico on the day of the Preakness Stakes, the middle jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown.

When longshots such as Animal Kingdom win the Kentucky Derby, they are frequently viewed with skepticism in the Preakness Stakes — and for good reason. The congested fields and sometimes suicidal early pace at Churchill Downs can produce fluky results.

Highlights from Friday's Preakness Stakes 2011 chat with DRF handicappers Dan Illman, Mike Beer and Marcus Hersh. Their top 3 picks for the Preakness are in bold below:

Dan Illman Like Midnight Interlude to improve a bit. Can't throw him out. Don't think Flashpoint will stay the trip.

Mike Beer I don't care who rides MidniteInterlude, don't like him this time

Mike Beer i'd be shocked if Flashpoint was around at the end

There’s more to like about Animal Kingdom’s chances in the Preakness on Saturday than there has been about a lot of other Kentucky Derby winners bidding for the second leg of the Triple Crown. He was a decisive winner of an unusually cleanly-run and traffic-free Derby; he has plenty of room for improvement with just five career starts, only one of them on a dirt track; and he hasn’t missed an oat since a race that featured no prolonged drive or struggle that might have taken something out of him.

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Trainer Graham Motion on Preakness favorite Animal Kingdom bouncing back from the Kentucky Derby. "I'm pleasantly surprised with how he's handled it."

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For as long as there has been Triple Crown racing, the Daily Racing Form has been around to cover it. Here's a couple of our front pages commemorating some of the most memorable Preakness and Triple Crown champions, starting with Sir Barton in 1919 and War Admiral in 1937. See below for more Preakness historical front pages.

May 14, 1919

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Once again expectations are high for a Kentucky Derby winner to add a victory in the Preakness Stakes, thereby setting up the heady prospect of a possible Triple Crown champion. This time around it is Animal Kingdom’s turn in the barrel, and good luck to him on this difficult journey.

BALTIMORE, Md. – When Martin Garcia took over as the rider for Lookin At Lucky in last year’s Preakness Stakes, his lack of big-race experience was seen as an issue. Would he wilt under the pressure?

He didn’t, maybe because, for Garcia, pressure is not defined under the terms used for most anyone else.

Is it pressure to ride in the Preakness in front of 95,760 people, or is it pressure to be orphaned by your parents at birth and raised by aunts and uncles in a poor area of Mexico?

Whenever trainer D. Wayne Lukas wins a race, he picks a young fan out of the crowd near the winner’s circle and invites the child to join Lukas for the picture-taking ceremony. He made a lot of youngsters – not to mention their parents, and Coady Photography – quite happy this past winter at Oaklawn, where Lukas was the leading trainer, and he said he would continue the tradition at Pimlico should he win a race on Saturday.

PREAKNESS STAKES 2011: Contenders, odds, video, and news updates