Memo to NBC’s Bob Costas and everyone else covering today’s 133rd running of the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore: The name of the race is pronounced “prake-ness” — not the commonly repeated “preek-ness — and if you don’t believe it, talk to old-timers in Wayne, where a famous racehorse of long ago still is remembered as a hometown hero. “I cringe every time I hear them say the name ‘Preakness’ on television,” said Dr. Robert Brubaker, the 84-year-old chairman emeritus of the Wayne Township Historical Commission. “They always pronounce it wrong. The word rhymes with ‘break.’
Costas, a sports announcer with a well-known interest in history, was in transit to the Pimlico Race Course on Friday and could not be reached for comment on whether he’ll bow to historical correctness. Adam Freifeld, a spokesman for NBC Sports, wouldn’t promise a break with tradition in today’s broadcast. “I told this story to the crew, and they’d never heard it before,” Freifeld said.
In Wayne, there are reminders of the horse everywhere — the Preakness Country Club, Preakness Reformed Church, and Preakness Chevrolet, to name a few — but few seem to know the story. Preakness the horse was raised on a farm located at the corner of Valley Road and Preakness Avenue right after the Civil War, at a spot where the A&P shopping plaza currently stands. The name “Preakness” is derived from the Minisi Indian word “Proquales,” which means “quail woods.” The English and Dutch settlers called the area some variation of “Proquales” that long pre-dated the arrival of the champion thoroughbred in 1868.
Gen. George Washington mentions his encampment at “Preckiness” on the grounds of the Wayne’s Dey Mansion, in the winter of 1776-77. Milton Holbrook Sanford had made a fortune furnishing wool blankets to the Union Army during the Civil War, and in 1868, set his sights on breeding horses. So he left Massachusetts, bought 70 acres of farmland in Preakness, and built a three-quarter-mile dirt track. Two years later, Sanford was hobnobbing at a dinner party following the races in Saratoga when he was approached by Ogden Bowie, the governor of Maryland. Bowie proposed the inaugural running of a race to be known as the Dinner Party Stakes. It would be held at a new track in Baltimore, that was to be called Pimlico. The purse was $15,000, at the time the richest race ever run in America.
Sanford took Preakness to Pimlico, where he won the Dinner Party Stakes by a length. Over the next four years, the colt reeled off a series of wins and strong races, winning nine times out of 19 starts. To honor its first champion Pimlico Race Course named a race after the champion colt. The first Preakness Stakes was run in 1873. But as often happens in horseracing, the champion met an inglorious end. In 1875 Sanford shipped Preakness to England and sold him to the Duke of Hamilton. The duke tried to put Preakness to stud, but the duke and the horse apparently didn’t get along. “The duke was a hot-headed guy,” Brubaker said. “So he shot the horse.”
In Great Britain, the ensuing public outcry led to the enactment of a series of animal cruelty laws. Today, Pimlico will shower the winning horse with a blanket of Black-Eyed Susans. Back in Wayne, history will take a back seat to suburban pleasures. “People in Wayne think of the Preakness Shopping Center, not the racetrack,” said Fred Meyers, the manager of Preakness Chevrolet.
