Previewing the 149th running of the Preakness

Probably a lot of questions seeing a post from me. To be honest, I am a bit surprised that not only my login still works but that my admin access has not been revoked. What a last 12 months it has been for OTM; dog surf contest, blogs about being short, numerous mentions of the insufferable Balboa Cafe, became a boxing company, OTR died, Dan wears cut ties like he's a used car salesman, Eagles Daily spread its wing and soared on its own platform, someone went to jail, and I didn't write a single fucking blog during a heart breaking super bowl run. Who would have thought that not getting press credentials at Golden Gate Fields could derail OTM's hyper growth era. As a man of honor, faith, and integrity our fans do deserve an explanation at some point. However, this is not the outlet for it. Today is about three things and three things only:

Crab cakes, horse racing, and Baltimore

Yup, today is the 149th running of the second leg of the prestigious Triple Crown, The Preakness Stakes. Just like Bob Huggins popping out of the coffin and letting his players know they aren't dead yet, I am doing the same to the OTM readers and fans. I also feel a tremendous amount of guilt and shame letting an outlet who said the number of horses in the gate will dictate the pace of the race give out advice. I do have to give credit where credit is due, Danny Dials took the classic "name angle" in the Kentucky Derby and gave out a winner with Mystik Dan. This was mainly because Tyler Gafflione fucking sucks and rammed Sierra Leone into traffic all over the backstretch of that race -- but we have moved on. Not like anyone at OTM had a $430 ticket to pay $2.5k on Sierra Leone -- that would be dumb.

The big news of the week was heavy favorite Muth (remember I wrote about Muth after his debut on this platform) scratching from the race due to a spiked fever. Regardless of your opinions of the whole seemingly never ending Baffert saga, horse racing is more fun when Bob the bad guy has a ringer in the field. It is unfortunate that Muth will not be running today, not only does it change the dynamics of this race -- it also knocks our field down to 8 runners:

Mugatu, ridden by Joe Bravo, trained by Jeff Engler
Uncle Heavy, ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr, trained by Robert E. Reid Jr
Catching Freedom, ridden by Flavien Prat, trained by Brad Cox
SCR
Mystik Dan, ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr, trained by Kenneth McPeek
Seize the Grey, ridden by Jaime A Torres, trained by D Wayne Lucas
Just Steel, ridden by Joel Rosario, trained by D Wayne Lucas
Tuscan Gold, ridden by an absolute bozo, trained by Chad Brown
Imagination, ridden by Frankie Detorri, trained by Bob Baffert

Despite the smaller field this could shape up to be quite the race. While I question if we will get the same level of drama we had in the running of the roses (3-way photo for first JFC), I have a feeling we may have an upset on our hands. Part of me does want Mystik Dan to win and have a shot at the triple crown headed into the Belmont @ Toga, for the Sierra Leone rematch. Because I do think Sierra Leone wins that race going away and I will cash the fuck out. But with that said, I am taking a bit of a swing here. The official selection of the 2024 Preakness in my epic John Wayne-esque return to OTM is:

#7 Just Steel ML 15-1 (live odds at time of writing 9-1)

Finished second to Muth in the Arkansas Derby before the KY Derby; edging out rival Mystik Dan in doing so
Was bumped early in the derby and used to duel on the lead on a very hot pace; toss that race out
Both of his wins were stalking trips; Rosario has won on him before
Needs to work a bit of a trip here and not go too quick too early, if that happens in my opinion we are live

If you're tailing, best of luck. If you're fading, best of luck. Horse racing is a hard game but its the best game out there.