As the controversy over who should have been declared the winner of the Kentucky Derby continues to fester, the Preakness Stakes is doing its best to find relevance amid its own turmoil before the race Saturday.
Maximum Security, the disqualified winner of the Kentucky Derby, won't be there. Country House, the elevated winner of the Kentucky Derby, won't be there. Runner-up Code of Honor and third-place Tacitus won't be there.
It's the first time since 1951 that the first four horses across the finish line in the Kentucky Derby have passed on the trip to Baltimore. It's the first time since 1996 that the Derby winner has not gone to Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. That year Grindstone had bone chips in his right knee.
Pimlico is a crumbling icon that might lose the race after next year.
Its future is even more uncertain than who the winner of this year's race will be.
So, it's against that backdrop of chaos that we offer five story lines to watch this week for the Preakness Stakes.
