Hours Before the Race, Tension and Buzz Are Building It's 8:52 on Preakness morning. At the barn, it's hurry up and wait. The trainer Shug McGaughey sits awhile, sweeps, walks around. The exercise rider Jenn Patterson rakes the wood-chip path even though it doesn't really need it. For the first time all week, signs of stress are emerging. But this is to be expected under the circumstances. In Stall 40, Orb munches hay in the shadows. By now he probably knows he's running, but he has time to rest and wait. Outside the fence, on Winner Avenue, Rogers Avenue and all the other roads around historic Pimlico Race Course, people walk, drive, talk, roll past, yell, banter. They travel on foot, on bicycle, in taxis, in school buses, in junkers, in classics. They're coming to the Preakness, or parking cars for the Preakness, or selling tickets for the Preakness. Overhead, helicopters hover, collecting traffic reports, weather reports, beauty shots for the local news. Everywhere, one question rules: can Orb win? McGaughey has talked all week about the progression and development of Orb, the Kentucky Derby winner. On the track, the Malibu Moon colt looks fluid, steady, ready, nailing lead changes, walking placidly back and forth for Patterson and for Anna Martinovsky aboard the lead pony Well Well. I didn't see Orb work Monday at Belmont Park, didn't see him at the Derby. As I watch him here, it's clear he's a racehorse. "I'm in good shape, Joe, I'm in good shape," McGaughey said while walking back from the track Thursday morning. That's a little like hearing "This will work" from an old-time newspaper editor. High praise. But McGaughey, a Hall of Famer, is indeed in good shape with Orb. The bay colt has won five races in a row. He went through three educational starts as a maiden, two with gate trouble, and then he started rolling: maiden win at Aqueduct, allowance win at Gulfstream Park, the Fountain of Youth, the Florida Derby, the Kentucky Derby. Next stop: Preakness. Step by step, he trained better, ran better, produced better. McGaughey and the owners Stuart Janney III and Phipps Stable went along for the ride. "I didn't know where we were, but then I was kind of amazed what I was seeing development-wise," McGaughey said. After the Fountain of Youth, I absolutely couldn't believe what I was seeing. "Then we were standing there looking at him in the stall here before he got out," he added, referring to Tuesday. "His groom was getting him ready, and I said, "Can you believe what we're looking at?" "