If There's One Thing Harder Than being from Philadelphia-the Eastern seaboard's perennial underdog-it's being from Baltimore, chronic runner-up even to Philly. But every so often, synergy works. The scrappy cities and a scrappy horse came together last week for a brilliant flash-paper moment in which Smarty Jones, a too-small Thoroughbred from an ordinary farm, roared to an 11.5-length win in the Preakness Stakes, the widest Preakness win ever and one that puts horse racing two-thirds of the way to its first Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978. Coming on the hooves of his win in the Kentucky Derby, Smarty Jones might be one of the most remarkable horses ever to get this far. He's certainly one of the unlikeliest.
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