Tom Pedulla offers five takeaways from the $2 million Preakness Stakes, the middle leg of the Triple Crown, and other major developments this weekend at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course.

DEFYING TIME: Never mind the world of racing. The best story in sports now – certainly the most positive one – revolves around the oldest trainer in history to win a Triple Crown race. That, of course, would be 88-year-old D. Wayne Lukas following Seize the Grey’s front-running Preakness triumph. Lukas often says there is no textbook about how to train a great horse. But his ability to get on his pony each morning to supervise training and the way he goes about his job should shed a light for many senior citizens on how best to fight the inevitable toll that time takes. Lukas addressed that subject during his post-race Preakness news conference by saying, “Don’t let that sofa pull you down. It’s a little easy when that alarm goes off to say, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t know if I really want to do this today.’ Erase that. The most important decision you’ll ever make in your life is your attitude decision. Make it early and make the right one.”

Members of MyRacehorse celebrate (Eclipse Sportswire)

BOON FOR RACING: Seize the Grey’s victory on behalf of MyRacehorse demonstrates beyond a doubt that the ownership of a racehorse, and the thrilling roller-coaster ride of highs and lows that often entails, is more approachable than ever before. The micro-share concept can take investors of relatively modest means to heights once unimaginable. That is what occurred on a potentially game-changing Saturday at Pimlico when 2,570 investors from 42 states rooted home a talented, well-bred colt made available to them for $127 per share. The huge moment was not lost on Michael Behrens, founder of MyRacehorse, who said shortly after the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, “This means everything for our business. What we tried to do four years ago is to allow anybody the biggest thrill of winning the biggest races and we had 2,570 people experience one of the greatest thrills in racing.” Could there be a greater advertisement for the micro-share concept than the Preakness?

WIDE OPEN: It looks as though the race for champion 3-year-old honors could go all the way to the Breeders’ Cup World Championships before being decided. Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve winner Mystik Dan has to be viewed as the division leader, but dents in his armor include a third-place finish in the Arkansas Derby and a runner-up effort by 2 ¼ lengths to Seize the Grey in the Preakness on a muddy track he relishes. Seize the Grey finished a distant seventh in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes before he swept the Pat Day Mile Stakes Presented by SAP and the Preakness. Blue Grass winner Sierra Leone missed by a nose in the Derby before sitting out the Preakness. Two-year-old champ Fierceness, a runaway Curlin Florida Derby Presented by Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms at Xalapa winner, misfired badly on the first Saturday in May but could rebound in the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets. It all should make for compelling races and great fun the rest of the way.

Black-Eyed Susan celebration (Eclipse Sportswire)

MILESTONE EDITION: The George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan Stakes was run for the 100th time Friday at Pimlico and Gun Song, with John Velazquez aboard, used the occasion to assert her quality with an emphatic 3 ¼-length victory against Corposo in the 1 1/8-mile contest. It was a result trainer Mark Hennig yearned to see after the daughter of newly-elected Hall of Famer Gun Runner finished a troubled fourth in the 1 1/16-mile Gulfstream Park Oaks Presented by FanDuel TV March 30 in what had been her stakes debut for owner Lee Lewis. “I didn’t have any doubt she was a good horse. I had a little doubt about the distance after her last race,” Hennig said. “But I didn’t have enough doubt not to try this.”

BIG AFTERNOON: Cherie DeVaux, who shows every sign of being a rising star in the training ranks, enjoyed a big afternoon at Pimlico Friday by sweeping three stakes races. Pyrenees provided the biggest highlight when he scored in the $250,000 Pimlico Special Stakes. Before that, Shotgun Hottie came through for DeVaux in the $100,000 Allaire du Pont Distaff and She Feels Pretty in the $100,000 Hilltop. She Feels Pretty, third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, made an auspicious season debut. DeVaux, a former assistant to Chad Brown, said it was her first three-win day. “You just hope you come in here and the horses run their race, they come out sound, they come out healthy,” she said. “That’s the most important, the last part.”