The Preakness is the second leg of the Triple Crown stakes.  As the Kentucky Derby is the "run for the roses", the Preakness is the run for the black-eyed susans.  Here's what they are saying about the prospects for a triple crown winner this year.

Preakness entry and Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown is led to the stakes barn at Pimlico Race Course by groom Ramiro Gonzales.

Godspeed to Big Brown in Preakness Stakes

Ill fate lone opponent on second leg of Triple Crown

BALTIMORE - While glancing at the past performances of the 13 horses entered yesterday in the 133rd running of the Preakness Stakes, you have to ask yourself, “Who the heck can beat Big Brown?”

The answer is crystal clear: The racing gods, and only the racing gods, can stop the Kentucky Derby winner from keeping his quest for a Triple Crown sweep alive.

Pound for pound, Big Brown is a super heavyweight with a knockout punch. His rivals in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown are featherweights.

The undefeated colt looks like arguably the biggest cinch in the Preakness Stakes since Spectacular Bid romped home in the 1979 Run for the Black-Eyed Susans to validate his victory at Churchill Downs two weeks earlier.

Of course, the racing gods do work in mysterious ways, such as when Spectacular Bid was upset in the Belmont Stakes after supposedly stepping on a safety pin.

“I think we could all be in trouble if (Big Brown) runs the same race he ran in the Derby,” said Graham Motion, who’ll saddle the inexperienced, New York-bred Icabad Crane for a clash with the 1-2 morning-line favorite. “We’re hoping to pick up the pieces, but it is a horse race. A lot of things can happen. It would be a shame not to be in there and not have the opportunity to win.”

Beating Big Brown in the Preakness would be a dream come true for the trainers of the 12 “other” horses, but the notion of defeating the Derby winner is just that, a wild dream based on nothing more than wishful thinking.

The truth of the matter is that the starting gate will be one horse shy of full because the $1 million dollar purse offers $200,000 to the second-place finisher.

“If Big Brown runs his race, he looks like the winner,” said Paddy Gallagher, the trainer of Southern California invader Yankee Bravo. “We’re all here to try our best and see what happens.”

The best of Big Brown’s rivals will hardly propel them into the Derby winner’s stratosphere.

“I think it’s good for him to be tested again,” said rival trainer Ken McPeek, who will saddle Racecar Rhapsody in search of the colt’s second lifetime victory in his seventh start. “If he’s going to be a Triple Crown winner, then make him work for it.”

Four others among the 12 also-entered horses will be seeking just their second lifetime victories in the Grade 1 Preakness, boasting only one triumph against maiden company. Nine Preakness starters have yet to win a stakes of any grade.

Big Brown is the only horse in the field that brings Grade 1 credentials into the starting gate, having won the Florida Derby prior to his sensational Derby score.

At Churchill Downs, Big Brown was challenged by several Grade 1 stakes winners, each of whose connections wisely decided to let their horses avoid the wrath of the Derby winner here.

Only 17th-place Derby finisher Gayego, winner of the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby, will remain on the Triple Crown trail, and that decision was made only a few days ago when the mediocre quality of Big Brown’s challengers made the prospects of a $200,000 payday too tough to resist.

The racing gods, for some reason, may frown upon Big Brown and deem him unworthy of extending his unbeaten status in the Preakness, but the strapping son of Boundary looked like the modern-day Pegasus in winning the Kentucky Derby by more than four lengths. The lightly raced colt became the first horse since 1915 to capture the Run for the Roses with as few as three prior career starts.

Big Brown is already a horse for history.

He figures to add to his growing legend in dominating fashion on Saturday.