It's getting ridiculous when.....

The coverage of the Preakness, horse racing's second leg of the Triple Crown, starts at 5 o'clock and the race itself won't happen until about 7 PM.

What in the world can the talking heads find to yap about for two hours, before a race that takes only about 2 minutes to run?

Are they interviewing the horses, Mr. Ed Style?

I managed to tune in just as the pampered steeds were being loaded into the gates, and a couple minutes later -- presto -- we have a winner. Justify, I think, but don't care.

You also know it's getting ridiculous when the horse-a-holics say this or that "magnificent beast" may have been overworked by running in the Kentucky Derby.

REALLY? That race was two, or was that three weeks ago? What animal under the sun can't get properly rested up over the course of that amount of time? I mean, what else do they have to do but graze, jog at leisure, get bathed and otherwise groomed daily, and pampered at every turn? If a horse is still "gassed" a few weeks after running hard for two minutes, I would humbly submit yon horse might be sneaking Marlboros in the stable at night. At least get him, or her, to an equine lung specialist to check for asthma, or some other ailment, because something is seriously wrong. And they're not supposed to be enjoying the pleasures of the horseflesh with the Grade A, USDA choice mare-babes, just yet, right? A few of those hump-arounds every day could wear out any otherwise healthy male. Including the two-legged ones. Couldn't hurt to check on late night stable hanky-panky either.

Here's a prediction. Yep, Justify has now won both the Derby and the Preakness. But if you looked close at the finish of the latter, he was gassed indeed, and the #8 nag had come from behind and was in the process of blowing by him, but ran out of real estate just before the finish line.

No horse racing aficionado here, but I'm pretty sure the last leg of the Triple Crown, sometimes called the Belmont Stakes, is quite a bit longer than either the Derby or the Preakness.

So yeah, they'll all have a week or three to rest up, but if form holds, look for Justify to fade badly down the stretch in the longer race.

It's like a world-class 100 meter sprinter being totally wiped after a race. Hey, he only ran hard for less than 10 seconds. Are they really that fragile and conditioned to shut down after such a brief spurt of energy and effort?

And those guys get far more fame, glory, and money than marathoners that run 26 -- count em -- TWENTY SIX five minutes miles in a row?

Ridiculous.