Boosted by the Kentucky Derby's biggest TV audience in 21 years and buoyed by the prospect of a full field of 14 horses and a 25 percent run-up in ticket sales, the 135th Preakness Stakes Saturday could be one for the books.
The second jewel in racing's Triple Crown could do with it, too, after last year's fiasco when the track banned in-field revelers from bringing in their own booze and attendance plummeted by more than 35,000.
This week, it's all systems go, and then some. They still can't bring their own beer into the playground, but Pimlico is offering an even better deal: $10 off the admission price and all the suds they can drink for $20, served in 16-ounce mugs.
But nothing has got this famous old thoroughbred classic more riled up than a new advertising slogan plastered everywhere on billboards, bus stops and radio: Get Your Preak On.
Suggestive? Tacky? Offensive? Or clever?
Judge for yourself with these samples: a big highway billboard displaying a dude in tank top, headband and dark glasses announcing, "I Get My Preak On for Eight Straight Hours."
The radio campaign highlights a young stud talking about mixing it up with the elderly in a retirement village. He spouts, "How could I resist, especially considering this might be her last chance? I was a little concerned with how her hip would hold up, knowing we'd be at it all day."
Some locals are livid. A Sun columnist, Kevin Cowherd, called it a royal embarrassment, playing on a sexually suggestive hip-hop song.
"The whole campaign has to be one of the most pathetic marketing ploys ever devised," he wrote. "And it shows you how desperate the Maryland Jockey Club is to restore the party atmosphere to the infield."
The Jockey Club, embarrassed for years by all the drink, sex and criminal shenanigans of the Preakness infield crowd, cracked down last year by banning patrons from bringing in their own beer. The attendance dropped to 77,850, the lowest in 24 years.
Betting took a major hit. The Maryland handle of $7.8 million was the lowest in 10 years and a sharp drop from the record $11.2 million four years ago.
This year, the Jockey Club set out to get the drinkers (and their betting rolls) back. After signing on for all the beer you can drink for 20 smackers, it hired an agency to craft an advertising campaign to woo them back.
The morons came up with Get Your Preak On, reducing a great, historic thoroughbred horse race to an event with sleazy overtones.
Cowherd raged on, "And maybe this is the saddest thing of all: The new campaign appears to be working, at least according to the MJC. It says ticket sales are up as much as 25 percent over previous years. Its PreakOn website is getting more than 32,000 hits per week."
Tom Chuckas, president of the MJC, thinks it's a winner. Said he, "It has made other people take notice. The majority of responses, particularly from the younger demographic, have been very positive."
In the end, it's the race that will pull the crowd. The Derby winner, Super Saver, and the losing Derby favorite, Lookin At Lucky, are set for another try, along with 12 others, including Derby starters Paddy O'Prado, Dublin and Jackson Bend and a bunch of new shooters.
It's looking very good. And I'll drink to that.
