Well, what a weekend for horse lovers. The main event is, of course, the running of the Preakness Stakes, the second leg in the Triple Crown, at Pimlico in Baltimore on Saturday, May 16. NBC will be going live at 4:30 p.m. EDT, with post-time set for 6:20 p.m.

Will American Pharoah become the first horse since my beloved Affirmed in 1978 to win the Triple Crown? Or will Firing Line and Dortmund, his Kentucky Derby rivals, overtake him in the run for the black-eyed Susans? Or will it be the proverbial dark horse?

We can’t say for sure. That’s what makes it a horse race, as they say – and an inspiration for “Criterion,” the third planned novel in my series “The Games Men Play.”

The 6:20 post-time gives folks in the New York metro area plenty of time to enjoy the elegant yin to horse racing’s thunderous yang – the Spring Horse Shows at Old Salem Farm in North Salem, which conclude Sunday, May 17. ...