05/15/09  I got up very early Friday morning and drove an hour North to Baltimore to see the horses who intend to run in tomorrow’s Preakness Stakes do their morning workouts. I am not a morning person but this is a very fun thing to do. It’s like being backstage at a play before opening night. There is tension and expectation in the air. Everyone looking at these animals is trying to figure out who will win the big race. The multi-million dollar horses are handled like nobility. I heard two grooms washing a horse after his morning run and one said “This horse gets treated better than I do. I’d like to get a hand bath sometime!” and the other groom said “Too much information, OK?”

Pioneerof the Nile* running an early morning workout at Pimlico racetrack.

[*Pioneerof the Nile? Is that a typo? No, it’s run together purposely to conform with thoroughbred naming rules laid down by the Jockey Club. The Jockey Club registers approximately 37,000 thoroughbreds annually in North America and records their names, pedigrees and identification number (tattooed on the inside of the upper lip) in the American Stud Book. Thoroughbred names are submitted by the owner of breeder and assigned by the Jockey Club, which limits them to 18 characters, including spaces and punctuation. That forced breeder and owner Ahmed Zayat, to run “Pioneer” and “of” together when naming the son of Empire Maker.]

Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird gets a bath after his morning workout.  My friend, the great Reuters photographer Molly Riley, has her eye to the camera in the background.

Preakness contender Papa Clem gets a bath following his workout.

Trainer Bob Baffert chats with the exercise rider on board his horse Pioneerof the Nile after an early morning workout at Pimlico racetrack.