The walkover for the Preakness isn't quite as long or as dramatic as the famous walkover for the Kentucky Derby - and the big horses emerging from the Derby, Justify and Good Magic, both handled that challenge with an extreme amount of class. That said, I do like to give the Preakness walkover a little bit of attention, as it's a unique setup that poses its own challenges to a horse, and some parts of the scene have the potential to be very unnerving.

The horses will leave the stakes barn as a group and pass a camera throng (video clip here, following Lone Sailor to the track yesterday) and will continue along a horsepath at the edge of the facility (video here) with the road on one side, unable to be seen, and a truck parking area on the other side. Noises that horses can't see the source of can be unnerving to them; remember, they evolved as prey animals, and that flight instinct never goes away. The horsepath then is enclosed on both sides for a brief bit (video here), where things are sure to get congested with all the people following their respective horses up, before emerging into an open area. Patrons will be on either side waiting to cross or shouting for their favorite runners, the tunnel to the infield is in the sightline (video here), and the horses will be walking directly AT the infield noise, screens, tents, etc.

Now again, the horses at the Derby really handled that wild scene with class - but horses aren't machines, and might react when they're seeing something new - or heck, just having a bad day. So I'm obviously going to be observing the race favorites, Justify and Good Magic, as they walk through this scene. Justify did stand in the open area near the gap for several minutes Thursday morning while waiting for harrows to leave the track; it was obviously nothing like what he'll see today, but at least he saw the scene and some activity there, including the harrows driving off and by. Sporting Chance's behavior has been reported on at length. Another to keep an eye on is Lone Sailor. He really reacted in the Derby post parade when the crowd roared midway through, and the pony rider did a great job to keep ahold of him. He did train with cotton in his ears yesterday.