Thirteen horses will be entered at tonight's post position draw, which will be televised nationally on ESPN2 starting at 5. The overwhelming favorite will be Big Brown, who is expected to arrive at the stakes barn around 6:30, a half-hour after the draw concludes.

Trainer Rick Dutrow will be traveling with his horse from Churchill Downs and won't be at the draw, which means I'll be waiting for him here at the track with the rest of the media posse and not taking the police-escorted shuttle to downtown. Ah, well.

Hall of Famer Nick Zito was the only trainer on the grounds early this morning, but Paddy Gallagher (Yankee Bravo) and Dallas Stewart (Macho Again) have since arrived. Reade Baker (Kentucky Bear) is expected to be at the draw, and as of 1 p.m., his is the only Preakness horse on the grounds. Several others are expected intermittently through the afternoon.

It's a warm and sunny day here in Baltimore. Track crews are putting the finishing touches on painting the Preakness logo in the infield where horses will saddle for the big race, adjacent to the winner's circle.

There are three Sunday Night Football tractor-trailers in the parking lot and John Madden's "horse trailer," and network crews have been stringing cable across the roof all morning. Several cameras are lined up like a firing squad pointing at the stakes barn, just waiting for the Big (Brown) horse to get off the van.

The weekend forecast keeps changing, but right now it calls for scattered thunderstorms on Friday with a high of 64, and partly cloudy on Saturday with temperatures in the mid-70s.

Here are a few Preakness tidbits to mull over:

* Since 1998, every Preakness winner rallied to the lead at the stretch call except Curlin in 2007, who came from second to beat Street Sense by a nose.

* The horse breaking from the outside post position has never won the Derby and Preakness in the same year.

* Big Brown can be the fourth undefeated Derby winner to also win the Preakness, following Majestic Prince (1969), Seattle Slew (1977) and Smarty Jones (2004)

* Five horses since 1980 have skipped the Derby and won the Preakness: Codex (1980), Aloma's Ruler (1982), Deputed Testamony (1983), Red Bullet (2000) and Bernardini (2006)