The star of the show, Super Saver -- led by a police escort with flashing red and blue lights and greeted by throngs of photographers -- pulled into Pimlico on Wednesday, ready to add the Preakness Stakes to his glittering Kentucky Derby trophy, the New York Post reported.
Currently the hottest horse on the planet, the colt settled into Stall 40 in the track's stakes barn -- the stall reserved for all Derby winners and graced in the past by nearly all the greats of the American turf.
Among the crowd greeting him after his flight from Louisville was his born-again trainer Todd Pletcher, who assured everyone that Super Saver was ready to light up the world again.
"The Preakness is an interesting challenge, to get the second jewel," he said. "Then we can take a shot at the third one."
Ho, ho, ho. The trainer, like his jockey Calvin Borel, is thinking Triple Crown with Super Saver. They've got it in their sights.
"The Preakness is shaping up well for him because his tactical speed should put him in a good spot," said Pletcher. "He's a fresh horse, he's only had three starts this year, and all the signs are that he has come out of the Derby well. His energy and appetite levels are very encouraging."
Pletcher's biggest worry is that the Preakness comes only two weeks after the Derby.
"It's our biggest issue," he said. "To come back with another performance like the last one."
Pletcher is a keen student of the speed figures compiled by time and performance experts known as "the sheets."
He said, "Super Saver ran a four fig. in the Arkansas Derby and another four in the Kentucky Derby, so there was no huge breakthrough, which may be helpful coming back in two weeks."
Pletcher meant that, based on the speed figures, Super Saver's race in the Kentucky Derby, against 19 rivals over a quagmire track, took no more starch out of him than his narrow defeat in his previous race, the Arkansas Derby.
That means that Super Saver might still have room to move forward in the Preakness -- and, of course, if did that, he will trounce the field.
But what about his eight post position? Todd dismissed it out of hand.
"In a field of 12," he said, "there is no bad post. I wouldn't worry about it."
As Pletcher bantered with the media, one thing became obvious: He's a new man. Winning the Kentucky Derby after years of trying with 24 starters and no luck appears to have changed his outlook. The jinx is gone, the monkey's off his back. No more apologies, no more questions, no longer any need to defend the record.
But he added, "I still get up at four every morning and go to work."
How can he be sure the Derby did not knock Super Saver?
"The first thing you look for (after a race like the Derby) is to see whether he's knocked out and tired, how he's eating. Those things are an alarm.
"But in his case, he was bright and alert, he ate up, he had his head into the hay rack, his ears up."
Super Saver will face eight fresh rivals in the Preakness, none of whom ran in the Derby. Pletcher paid them the traditional compliment -- "They're all dangerous" -- but added, "As a rule, you've got to look to the Derby to find the horses to beat."
Pletcher also shipped his second Preakness starter, long shot Aikenite, on the same plane as Super Saver. Last out, Aikenite finished second in the Derby Trial. Nobody asked a single question about Aikenite.
With Todd Pletcher, that could be a mistake. In big races, where he saddles more than one horse, he is known to win with the long shot.
But for now, Super Saver is the Superstar.
