Welcome to this week’s Preakness edition of America’s Best Racing’s Main Track.           

Each Tuesday in this space we spotlight the most meaningful story of the past week, detailing news that stands out because of its importance or perhaps the emotional response it generates.

Looking ahead, if you believe there’s a story this week that should be featured in next Tuesday’s edition of the Main Track, let us know by tweeting it to @ABRLive using the hashtag #ABRMainTrack.

As for this week, our story involves how patience became a virtue on the Triple Crown trail.

If the Kentucky Derby is anything at all, it’s magnetic. Horsemen, even those with horses of modest abilities, are inevitably drawn to it, hoping to savor that sweet sensation of success in America’s most famous race.

But the Derby isn’t America’s only famous race. There are two other opportunities for fame and fortune in the fabulous five-week run of the Triple Crown – a point that was not lost on trainer Chad Brown and owners Seth Klarman and William Lawrence.

They are the connections of Cloud Computing, the 3-year-old colt who, with help from jockey Javier Castellano, brought them to the winner’s circle in Saturday’s 142^nd edition of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

To get there, Cloud Computing had to erase Classic Empire’s three-length lead at the eighth pole with a strong closing kick that propelled him to the wire ahead of the 2-year-old champ by a head.

He also needed patience on the part of Brown and his owners, which paid off to the tune of their first Triple Crown victory.

You see, Cloud Computing could have run in the Kentucky Derby. By finishing third in the Wood Memorial and second in the Gotham, he had enough points to join 19 other starters on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs. He also had a record that illustrated his ability to be competitive against the best of his generation in the run for the roses.

There is, however, a big difference between being competitive and victorious, which resonated with the wise-beyond-his-years 38-year-old Brown and the colt’s owners. Rather than roll the dice with just three career starts in a wild free-for-all among 20 horses at a grueling mile and a quarter distance, they opted for discretion and two additional weeks of training to give Cloud Computing every opportunity to turn in the kind of peak performance that allowed them to hoist the Woodlawn Vase in celebration.

“No regrets,” Klarman said when asked after Preakness about missing the Kentucky Derby. “I think possibly some of the reason that we won today was because we were patient and didn't throw an inexperienced horse against a 20-horse field in the Derby on a very difficult track. So I think that's actually why we're here today.

Cloud Computing (left) outfinishes Classic Empire. (Eclipse Sportswire)

“I've also learned in life that you don't look back with a lot of would-have, could-have, should-have. We made a great call and we're ecstatic today and we'll worry about the future, not the past.”

The decision was surely helped by another 3-year-old in Brown’s barn who is owned by Klarman and Lawrence. Practical Joke was a two-time Grade 1 winner at two for the trio and seemed the better of the two horses a month ago after a runner-up finish in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

Practical Joke was a respectable fifth in the Kentucky Derby, yet Brown said he never seriously pondered the thought of starting a two-horse entry in the run for the roses.

“It really wasn’t a hard decision,” Brown said. “We had the points (to run in the Derby) and we got together and we just really zeroed in on (the Preakness) and thankfully it worked out.

“It was easy to not go to the Derby,” he added. “We paused for a bit. We thought about it. With Practical Joke (in the barn), I made a decision sooner than I would have. But the decision always would have been the same.”

In retrospect, Brown’s decision was wise and practical. As promising as a third-place finish in the Wood might have been, building a case that a young, inexperienced horse could jump up and surpass faster and more seasoned rivals with either more or an equal amount of rest is the kind of wishful thinking that explains why so many horses at odds of 20-1 have no say in the outcome of the Derby.

Knowing how Brown is an avid believer in the Ragozin Sheets, his strategy seems pretty straight-forward. Going into the Derby, Practical Joke was coming off a far faster figure than Cloud Computing and loomed as the better hopeful for the run for the roses. So by giving Cloud Computing six weeks of spacing between the Wood and the Preakness, he increased the colt’s chances of moving forward while hoping that the main contenders exiting the first leg of the Triple Crown, horses such as Derby winner Always Dreaming, runner-up Lookin At Lee and fourth-place Classic Empire, might take a backward step on two weeks’ rest. Put together the yin of Cloud Computing moving forward on six weeks rest and the yang of two weeks rest haunting the favorites and there was the chance of Brown’s horse drawing even with his rivals – a scenario that played out on Saturday.

Admittedly the “fresh horse” angle has been anything but profitable in recent years at the Preakness. Prior to Cloud Computing, the last Preakness winner who did not run in either the Kentucky Derby or Kentucky Oaks was Bernardini in 2006, who was also ridden by Castellano.

Yet what rarely happens is that a horse who can run in the Derby skips it and waits for the Preakness. A better term for the “fresh horse” is “a horse not good enough to run in the Derby.”

Cloud Computing, at 13-1 odds, broke that mold, yet it’s unlikely he’ll start a new trend. The power of Derby fever is simply too strong for most horsemen. But when people do the right thing, opt for patience and give their horse every chance to succeed, it’s definitely worth a round of applause.

“We all were pretty much in agreement that while it would be great to run in the Derby, and I guess it helped that we had another horse run the Derby who put in a nice performance, we're not going to hurt the horse. There's plenty of big races ahead,” Lawrence said. “We trust Chad and feel very confident in him. He'll let us know how the horse is doing, and his team, they're working there every day. We're not there in the barn every day. I think we're pretty good about making suggestions but we follow Chad's lead. If he says go, we’ll go. If he says no, we won’t go.”

For the Kentucky Derby, the word was “no.”

But for the Preakness it was “go” and patience was richly rewarded.

The Also-Eligible List

Here are some of the other stories that made for a lively week in the U.S. Thoroughbred racing industry:

Preakness sets attendance, handle records

Actress announces presence in Black-Eyed Susan

Shaman Ghost shines in Pimlico Special

Owner responsibility stressed at Aftercare forum

Champion Tepin confirmed in foal to Curlin