As Alan Foreman sat watching the aftermath of the Kentucky Derby last Saturday afternoon, he had a Yogi Berra moment.

“It was déjà vu all over again,” he said by phone this week.

In 1980, Foreman was the state attorney representing the Maryland Racing Commission in Bertram and Diana Firestone’s appeal of the stewards’ decision in that year’s Preakness, in which they maintained that Codex, ridden by Angel Cordero to a nearly-five-length victory, had interfered with their filly Genuine Risk at the top of the lane, preventing her from winning and taking a shot at the Triple Crown.

The stewards saw it differently that day at Pimlico Race Course, May 17, 39 years ago, ruling that Codex had not impeded the filly that had won the Kentucky Derby.

The story is arguably that of Thoroughbred racing’s most notorious non-DQ, involving a history-making family, one of the country’s top riders, and bluebloods on both sides.