Horse racing is not the official sport of Maryland (it's jousting??), but the Preakness is a super big deal around here. Pimlico the racetrack where it is held is in the northern part of the city. There are festivities at the track the whole week leading up to the big race. While most of them we would never be invited to (or pay for), they do have morning warm-up sessions that are open to the public and free. A local equestrian group also does free tours and the young women who gave ours was quite knowledgeable. We got up at our usual crack of dawn, got some bagels, and headed up to watch the "horse race."
We set up camp right near the finish line. We didn't see so many of the actual Preakness Stakes horses warming up, (there are lots of other races during the weekend and the Preakness horses can workout at other times for privacy) but we did see "It's My Lucky Day" who finished second.
On our tour we saw the barn where all the Preakness horses are. You had to be quiet and there were no photos allowed. Apparently we saw some people that are a really big deal in the horse racing world, but us common folk had no idea.
The kids favorite part was seeing the Clydesdales get a bath and the tattoos they receive from the Clydesdale owners. We also learned all about making horseshoes and saw the jockey rooms and all of their "silks" (translation for the common folk--jerseys).
Larsen in the Winner's Circle. Fancy that!
