Preakness pre-race points

Just a few quick musings as we near post time for the Preakness.

Kudos to hall-of-famer Gary Stevens for doing some firsthand reporting on Mine That Bird by documenting the horse's height. We keep reading that he's a small horse. Nobody's quantified that.

Stevens did so, measuring Mine That Bird (and Rachel Alexandra) in person, photographs included. The results: Mine That Bird is just 15.1 hands; the filly a big'un at 16.2. ... Size won't win the race for her nor lose it for him, but it's good to finally have that question answered about the Derby winner.

Second observation: In leaving the Preakness barn for the saddling area, Musket Man looked good. ... I mean good. ... And you can still get 12-1 on him!

Third, I can't seem to get through to the Preakness Web site here just minutes before post time. Sure, there should be heavy traffic at this point. But did they not provide the site enough bandwidth or server backbone?

Lastly, I can't say it enough, safe trip to all.