Survivor's record winning margin of 10 lengths lasted for 131 years until Smarty Jones won in 2004 by 11½ lengths during his bid for the Triple Crown.

In 1890, the race was run under handicap conditions, and the age restriction was lifted. The race was won by a five-year-old horse named Montague.

The Preakness is the second leg in American thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown series and almost always attracts the Kentucky Derby winner.

It is run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs (1 3/16 miles), making it the shortest of the Triple Crown races.

The race was named in honor of the colt Preakness who upset heavily favored Foster to win the inaugural running of the Dixie Stakes (then known as the Dinner Party Stakes) on October 25, 1870, the opening day of Pimlico Race Course.

The original Woodlawn Vase is kept at the Baltimore Museum of Art and brought to the race each year under guard, for the winner's presentation ceremony.

The winner is draped in a blanket of Viking poms. It's usually called a blanket of black-eyed Susans, but since the Maryland state flower doesn't bloom until June, the Viking poms are used as a substitute. In previous years, daisies were painted to resemble black-eyed Susans.

John Chamberlain's three-year-old, Survivor, collected the $2,050 winning purse in the inaugural Preakness.

In 1948, the Preakness was televised for the first time by CBS.

The mammoth 13-kilogram, solid silver Woodlawn Vase, created by Tiffany and Co. in 1860, is worth $1 million -- making it the most valuable trophy in American sports.