“Maryland, my Maryland!” said jockey Kent Desormeaux immediately after he won the Preakness Stakes atop Big Brown on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.

What looked like a walk in the park for Big Brown, the 2008 Preakness Stakes wrapped up as expected with Big Brown the big winner. Second place is Macho Again, followed by Icabad Crane, who placed third.

“He just set sail,” Desormeaux said, “He just kept kicking his legs up and went riding for the wire. There was not a grain of sand in face.”

Up next for Big Brown? The Belmont Stakes and a shot at the Triple Crown.

Pimlico Race Course linemaker Frank Carulli made Big Brown the big 1/2 odds on favorite to win the 2008 Preakness Stakes Wednesday after the Kentucky Derby winner drew lucky post position seven.

“Drawing post seven, if nobody wants to go with him he can bounce out of there and take the race on his own on the lead,” said Iavarone. “It gives Kent a lot more options.”

The second pick to win at 8/1 odds on winning the Preakness is Gayego, who placed 17th in the Derby but was the only horse to come back and challenge the Derby winner. But bettors looking for a little challenge and perhaps some value may want to consider Kentucky Bear, the 15/1 longshot who will race from the eighth post position.

“I love it,” he said. “It’s outside Big Brown. It couldn’t be better. He’s beatable. He beat all those horses at Churchill Downs, but he didn’t beat us.”

In order of post position, here are the names of the horses competing in the 133 running of the Preakness Stakes, along with the names of their jockeys and trainers:

1. Macho Again Leparoux/Stewart
2. Tres Borrachos T. Baze/Greely
3. Icabad Crane Rose/Motion
4. Yankee Bravo Solis/Gallagher
5. Behindatthebar Flores/Pletcher
6. Racecar Rhapsody Albarado/McPeek
7. Big Brown Desormeaux/Dutrow
8. KentuckyBear Theriot/Baker
9. Stevil Velazquez/Zito
10. Riley Tucker Prado/Mott
11. Giant Moon Dominguez/Schosberg
12. Gayego Smith/Lobo
13. Hey Byrn Lopez/Plesa

The field for the 2008 Preakness Stakes has been set at 13 (see below list), including Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown, and the post positions will be drawn later this afternoon. Pimlico handicapper Frank Carulli will release the morning line after today’s post position draw.

“It will be in the 3-5 range,” Carulli said of the morning line on Big Brown.

A winner at final odds of 3-5 pays $3.20 or $3.40. It’s interesting to note that Post-time favorites have won 68 of the 133 runnings of the Preakness. Will Big Brown make it 69? If he does, can he take on a bigger and more challenging field at the Belmont Stakes? Questions like those make for great horse racing props and leave it to the oddsmakers over at Bodog Racebook to come up with these Preakness props:

• How many lengths will the winner of the Preakness Stakes win by?
• What will the winning saddlecloth number of the 133nd Preakness Stakes be?
• Will the winner of the 133rd Preakness Stakes complete the race faster than the 1:53.46 time of Curlin last year?

Here is the field for the 2008 Preakness Stakes, including jockey name/trainer name:

Big Brown Desormeaux/Dutrow
Behindatthebar Flores/Pletcher
Gayego Smith/Lobo
Giant Moon Dominguez/Schosberg
Hey Byrn Lopez/Plesa
Icabad Crane Rose/Motion
Kentucky Bear Theriot/Baker
Macho Again Leparoux/Stewart
Racecar Rhapsody Albarado/McPeek
Riley Tucker Prado/Mott
Stevil Velazquez/Zito
Tres Borrachos T. Baze/Greely
Yankee Bravo Solis/Gallagher

Get all your Preakness Stakes odds here.

The Preakness Stakes often gets overlooked as the middle child of the Triple Crown. This year’s 133rd Run for the Black-Eyed Susans will be particularly anticlimactic – and not just because of the death of Eight Belles.

Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown is making the trip to Pimlico. Nobody else from the Derby is joining him now that Recapturetheglory has been pulled out of the race with a fever. Assuming the current 12-horse field goes unchanged between now and this Saturday, this will be the first time the Derby winner has faced completely fresh competition at the Preakness since Citation in 1948.

Citation went on to win the Triple Crown. Could the same be in store for Big Brown? The horse racing props market has the Derby champ at –350 to win the Preakness and +105 to complete the sweep. Todd Pletcher’s Harlem Rocker appears to be the best of the rest at Pimlico.

Check out this online racebook if you’re planning on betting on the Preakness Stakes. Read more on the Preakness Stakes and Big Brown’s chances of winning.

It wasn’t exactly the Heidi Game, but it was close enough for hockey fans.

The Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres were about to go into overtime when NBC cut away to show their regularly scheduled program: the Preakness Stakes. Those with access to Versus (or to the Canadian feed) saw the Sens move on to the Stanley Cup finals. Those without? Well, it was just another day in the life of a hockey fan in America.

At least they got to see a tremendous horse race. Curlin beat Street Sense by a nose to cash in on some of the hype he brought to the Triple Crown trail. The first two jewels in the Crown have been excellent to value bettors. At the Derby, Curlin was the pre-race favorite until Street Sense put in a beautiful workout and starting drawing all the attention – and action. Those who got in early were able to nab Street Sense at 6-1 instead of 9-2. The shoe was on the other hoof at the Preakness; although Street Sense remained the favorite at 7-5, the somewhat forgotten Curlin was generating plenty of horseplay at 7-2.

The race itself was a beauty. As expected with three frontrunners (including Hard Spun) in the field of nine, the first half-mile was a sprinter’s dream, completed in just 45.75 seconds. Street Sense, as he did at the Derby, charged from far behind to take the lead from Hard Spun down the stretch; Curlin, however, was the stalker du jour. After stumbling out of the gate, Robby Albarado put in a masterful ride, getting maximum results from Curlin down the last quarter-mile to eke out the victory.

Both Street Sense and Curlin got some help from Mother Nature. In the hour leading up to the Preakness, the track at Pimlico saw enough rainfall to harden the surface, but not enough to make it sloppy. That gave both horses the purchase they needed to make their patented closes before running out of distance.

The Preakness, exciting as it was, may prove to be even more disappointing to horseplayers than it was to hockey fans. Curlin’s victory likely brings an end to Street Sense’s career. Without a Triple Crown to race for, the Derby winner is expected to miss the Belmont and go straight to stud for something in the neighborhood of $30 million. Now that’s a golden handshake.