According to the Maryland Jockey Club’s logo for the feature race at Pimlico this Saturday, this year is Preakness 143. That would mean that the first edition of the race was run in 1873, when Survivor won it. (1918 counts twice, because there were two divisions that year.)

If you go by the June 3, 1908 Daily Racing Form, the first Preakness was in 1894, when Assignee won it.

Fourteen years later, the DRF revised its account, printing that the Preakness was first run in 1909.

And there are some observers, like racing historian and Mid-Atlantic dweller Kevin Martin, who might argue that this year is actually Preakness 127.

Are you still with me?

Don’t go checking the websites for Pimlico or the Preakness for verification; both relate the history of the racetrack and to some degree the history of the race, but both also rather cagily avoid declaring the year of the race’s inception, and neither has a list of the race’s winners.

So just what is the dealio with the Preakness?

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