My Preakness Day

Updated: May 17, 2008, 7:36 PM ET

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By Jay Cronley
Special to ESPN.com
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Editor's Note: Jay dropped by all day on May 17 with his observations and musings on the 133rd running of the Preakness Stakes.

6:45 pm ET
Here's an idea: Let's have a round table and get racing and writing and TV reporting experts and discuss how well the Preakness went.

After a big event, horse racing seems to step back and ask itself where it goes from here.

After the way Big Brown took our minds off politics, and almost off the price of gasoline, the sport figures to be around a while longer, doesn't it.

Sports today spawn over-reaction. It's not so much that sports have become newsworthy or in need of instant righteous or expert opinion. It's just that so many people have so many formats and you have to say something, you can't just sit around on TV or on the internet or at the newspaper praise and pamper. Not only does praise and good cheer fall short of paying the media rent, it won't even pay the coffee bill. To be noticed, you have to link horse racing with dog or bull fighting. To be noticed in a sea of more or less incompetent hacks, you seem to think you have to get tacky.

Concerning the past pains and future rectifications of horse racing, it is possible that some problems, while tragic, could be isolated. Barbaro did crash through a steel gate before being injured; Eight Belles was a young filly going against tough guys. True, it happens in Europe all the time: on grass.

General condemnations of any sport are often for show.

Granted, my fondness for the sport of the sport of horse racing today is in part based on the fact that Wednesday in some Preakness picks here, I listed Brown and Macho Again 1-2, with the handy Exacta paying almost $40, nice "value," as the value seekers might say. Everybody knows horse racing isn't chess. Lots of change for the better and bettor are required. But some days when the sport comes together well, when it is done safely and honestly, when, before the gate springs open, not even the smartest person around has any idea what will happen next, jockey included, horse race fans have this over most of the other sports fans put together: it's fun.

1:45 p.m. ET
Who hasn't heard, since Big Brown won the Derby on cruise control: Horse racing needs a Triple Crown winner.

Moreover, America needs a Triple Crown winner.

And it rings true going back to Lassie, Flicka, Black Beauty and Mr. Ed, there's nothing like an animal hero to make a person set aside the concerns of the day. Human heroes are apt to have a dark side. Animal heroes keep untoward thoughts to themselves.

Animal heroes are such fun because we get to practice anthropomorphism on them.

Anthropomorphism is where you project human characteristics or mindsets on animals. A wag doesn't mean his tail needs stretching, it means unconditional love. A lick means he cares for you. Ears up on a horse means he's a competitor.

A Triple Crown winner would help horse racing in the public relations arena, no doubt about it.

Whether it would further translate into a large segment of the population moving from poker or dice to pari-mutuel wagering is debatable. But whereas picture-postcard moments are wonderful for the heart, the lifeblood of horse racing is not millionaires hugging on page one, it is Louisiana Downs on a weekday, Philly when it's chilly. Part of the future of horse racing is convincing pinheads with money that it is eminently more entertaining, and even rewarding, than most casino hustles.

Would a Triple Crown winner cause the handle to go up at Lone Star?

Possibly.

Would a Triple Crown winner put the country in a better mood?

I would say yes.

Who wouldn't be interested in hearing about what a horse was thinking as he slid home free and easy, looking forward to New York.

12:55 pm ET
Usually, there are about 250 fairly reasonable ways to make money on a horse race. Today at the Preakness Stakes, there are about 15 ways, and some of these involve picking the first three or four horses in their exact order of finish, cold as iced tea.

Here's the way races are handicapped by people who win consistently.

You come to the likely winner (or two) that fits your mindset; and then you figure onward to a possible runner-up (or nine). And after you have formed an opinion about who goes where, then comes a different kind of problem: money management, betting.

Here's a little-known aspect of horse-race handicapping. You don't have to bet every single time. There's no loss of respect if you pass on a race. Passing a race simply means that you don't feel good about picking a winner, or that the likely winning payoff on your picks will not be worth the risk.

Some people go about racing backwards. They look for a price, they shop for what guys looking to borrow twenty bucks call a "value."

The search for a "value" is a loser's lament. I cannot recall once having seen or heard a "value search" followed by a winning pick. The truth of horse racing is all winners have value. Your need for money will not make a nag run faster. If the likely winner's value isn't enough for what you need, or what you owe elsewhere, bet exotics. For once and always, let's define "value" in a horse race as a loser that would pay real well if, during the running of the race, better horses sat down. A live long shot is not value. Value is of lesser quality. A better way to search for value at the horses races than by playing an unlikely winner is by rummaging through the garbage for mistakenly discarded winners.

The Preakness takes people to Big Brown winning or a couple or three others, Kentucky Bear or Macho Again or Gayego; or to Kentucky Bear nosing out Big Brown in a race made stressful by only 13 off days since the Derby.

So, do you want to up the cost of a wager with Big Brown on top?

Do you want to try to beat him?

Do you want to tiptoe into the exotics?

The fourth option is to pass -- to sit and smell the nachos, to discuss gasses like politics and fuel, to admire the equine form, to admire the form of humans nearby, to relax.

There's no negative superstitious element tied to passing a race. Other races will be there afterward, New York around noon tomorrow, Evangeline in the evening, races that might be easier to figure or play.

This word of warning, if you do pass on the Preakness and would have hit a nice ticket had you played, you'll be a wreck for months.

Write to Jay at jaycronley@yahoo.com.