There's no such thing as Preakness Fever, which is a blessing. Instead of enduring a six-month run-up to a crazed rite of spring, the second 3-year-old classic is on you in a hurry. There's no time to obsessively analyze form and workouts, and no call to crank out features about personalities. Enough is enough.

The Kentucky Derby is a national celebration; the Preakness Stakes is a good horse race. The Derby is first, the Preakness is second; it's the natural order of things.

Besides the world's best crabcakes, the best thing about the Preakness is there's always a chance for a Triple Crown if the Derby winner runs. Except for the horse that wore the roses, the pressure is off, unless a heavy Derby favorite is seeking vindication after a flop.

Pimlico has been a happy place for Bob Baffert, who has trained three of the past five Preakness winners -- Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1998) and Point Given (2001). After the frenzy at Churchill Downs, the laid-back Baffert appreciates the more leisurely scene at funky Old Hilltop.

"The Preakness, it's very relaxing," Baffert said last week on a conference call. "It's more of a local thing ... it's a different atmosphere. It's a very casual type of social gathering. It's fun, and there's less hassles when you go to the Preakness. I mean really less hassles. So it goes really smooth. Everybody's very relaxed.

"You're coming off the Derby where the Derby's intense. We're all in the same barn [at Pimlico], so everybody's talking to everybody and everybody gets to know everybody and so it's really different."

Baffert is 2-for-2 at Pimlico with his Derby winners and hopes to bring War Emblem to next month's Belmont Stakes with a chance at the first series sweep since 1978. Horsemen often say the 1 3/16-mile Preakness is the toughest of the three races to win, mainly because it's only two weeks after the Derby. For a need-to-lead type such as War Emblem, it could be doubly difficult. Despite Pimlico's reputation as a speed track, Louis Quatorze, in 1996, is the only Preakness winner to go wire to wire in the past 19 runnings.

There will be plenty of cheap speed to go early with War Emblem, who set legitimate fractions up front at Churchill Downs but was never challenged and kept going. Traditionally, when a front-runner wins the Derby, the Preakness fractions are hot and contested. The other trainers and jockeys aren't going to risk being called idiots for being fooled the same way twice.

War Emblem not only will have to clear fellow speed types such as Proud Citizen, Medaglia d'Oro, Booklet and Menacing Dennis, but the Derby hero also has run consecutive career tops. He's a prime bounce candidate, and I'll be looking for the winner elsewhere. The race should set up for a midpack runner with tactical speed, so Derby failure Harlan's Holiday could be live and will offer betting value.

Seattle Slew's recent death left racing without a living winner of the Triple Crown. As much as the fans and the sport yearn for another, the prospect of War Emblem becoming an immortal doesn't stir the soul. Baffert has been training the colt for only a month after Prince Ahmed Salman purchased him for $900,000 after the Illinois Derby. Many believe the Prince bought the horse awfully late in the game and that Baffert and jockey Victor Espinoza stole America's Race for him. Sour grapes? Maybe, but that's the buzz, and perception often is reality.

When Kentuckian John Ward won the Derby last year with Monarchos, it created widespread good feeling. He's a pleasant local guy whose family has been in the game for three generations. That he knocked off the new king of the hill, Baffert, and Point Given made it sweeter for some that have tired of the flippant Baffert's act.

Ward was asked about War Emblem's victory, which was not nearly the crowd-pleaser that Monarchos' was.

"Well, you know, I'm going to be very diplomatic about this," Ward said. "But I will have to say that on Derby Day, there didn't seem to be the emotional outburst post-race that there is sometimes.

"But I think the Preakness is turning out to be probably an extremely competitive race with all emotions aside. Everybody is just kind of looking, not really taking any favorites as far as personalities go. And it's just mainly looking at straight, hard, cold facts about which horse can get there first."

That's the difference between the Derby and the Preakness, and it will never change.