Posted: Mon May 11, 1998 at 9:36 PM ET

BALTIMORE (CNN/SI) -- Most people today don't realize that the Preakness is actually older than the Kentucky derby. It was first introduced as a three-year-old stakes race at Pimlico in the spring of 1873, two years before the Kentucky Derby.

It has now been 125 years since the Baltimore newspapers were carrying front-page stories about the first spring meet ever at Pimlico and the initial running of the Preakness on May 23. Pimlico, which had opened in 1870, had previously conducted all of its racing in the fall.

The Preakness was actually the brainchild of Maryland Governor Oden Bowie, a sportsman and an enterprising racing entrepreneur.

Governor Bowie, whose term had ended in 1872, named the mile and a half race in honor of Preakness, an impressive colt, who had won the Dinner Party Stakes, in 1870, on the occasion of Pimlico's opening.

It was the same Bowie who had boldly guaranteed that Maryland would have a track available for the Dinner Party Stakes, which had been proposed at an 1868 Saratoga party, hosted by Milton H. Sanford. Bowie "electrified" that gathering by offering $15,000 as a purse, a staggering sum then.

With Governor Bowie's help, the Maryland Jockey Club negotiated for the acreage known as Pimlico the same year. The new course engineered by General John Elliott opened as promised on October 25, 1870.

Obviously, Bowie's $15,000 purse impressed Sanford, who had gained part of his wealth by selling blankets during the Civil War. His colt Preakness was ready for Pimlico's first stakes race, beating among others Governor Bowie's filly, My Maryland, who finished last.

But Bowie had the satisfaction of putting Baltimore on the Thoroughbred map with the Dinner Party Stakes and naming the eventual second jewel of the Triple Crown the Preakness. He also perpetuated the Dinner Party Stakes as the Dixie Handicap (now known as the Early Times Dixie), the eighth oldest stakes in America run annually at Pimlico.

So the scene was set for the first Preakness Stakes on Tuesday, May 23, 1873, a warm and muggy spring day at Pimlico. The crowd, well aware of Bowie's accomplishments, swarmed onto the grounds by buggy carriage and omnibus.

One of the regrets of the day was that the projected horsecar line from Baltimore to Pikesville terminated at Druid Hill Park, about two miles south of the track.

Some fans arrived via the Northern Central Railroad to the East and walked a mile uphill to the track. The violet-painted stands and the Victorian Clubhouse, which survived until a fire destroyed it in 1966, were decorated with the Maryland Jockey Club blue and white pennants. Entertainment was provided by Itzel's Fifth Regiment Band which played operatic airs from Martha and Il Trovatore and popular tunes of the day.

The first Preakness Stakes drew seven starters for the mile and a half run. It was the second event of a three-race program. The crowd estimated at 12,000 favored former Governor Bowie's Catesby but he could do no better than fourth. John Chamberlain's 3-year old, Survivor, galloped home easily by ten lengths. To this day it is the largest Preakness margin of victory.

The new Preakness, off to a great start, prospered for the next 17 years. The span from 1878 to 1882 was known as the "Lorillard Years." George L. Lorillard won the classic for five consecutive years. The consecutive record still stands. George and his brother Pierre were in the fourth generations of Lorillards and shared a fortune in land and tobacco of the P. Lorillard and Co.

Suddenly, in 1889, after Buddhist had won the Preakness, Pimlico and the Maryland Jockey Club ran into rocky times. The exact causes of the decline are rather vague although competition with Bennings near Washington, D.C. might have had an effect.

In 1890, the Preakness was run at Morris Park in New York. The Maryland Jockey Club continued to be involved in racing by presenting some steeplechasing and even trotting racing at Pimlico but the Preakness did not return to the Baltimore site until 1909.

During the interval, the Preakness was run for 15 years at the Gravesend track in Brooklyn, New York. These 15 so-called "lost" Preaknesses were officially incorporated into the race history of the classic in 1948. The other lost Preakness, run in 1890, was added to the stakes record in the 1960s.

The Maryland Jockey Club had become strong again by 1904, gaining the acceptance of The Jockey Club. The records show that trainer Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, who was later to saddle four Preakness winners, captured the Merchants Handicap with Bartender on November 4 at Pimlico.

Despite the upsurge, the Preakness was not re-established at Pimlico until May 12, 1909 when the 3-year-old Effendi recorded a front-running victory.

From that day the Preakness has been run without a break each year at Pimlico. Commander J.K.L. Ross, whose Damrosch won the 1916 Preakness, described the race as a "sleeping giant." It was quite a prediction. Two years later 26 horses entered to cause the race to be run in two divisions.

The next spring Ross' colt, Sir Barton, became the first Triple Crown winner. Seventy-eight years ago, Man O' War appeared in 1920, passing up the Derby to help establish the Preakness as a true American classic.

Over the years, memories have piled on memories as champion after champion made turf history in the Preakness. In the last five years the Preakness crowds have totaled nearly a half million. Undoubtedly, Commander Ross was right about the "giant."

The Maryland Jockey Club, 1998 Preakness Stakes Media Guide and website contributed to this report.