GROWING UP, “HI! HO! PIMLICO!” was a rallying cry for an event that turns 150 this year. It was on every TV channel (all three of them!), billboard, and radio station. The race attracted people from all walks of life. No matter what your opinion is of racing, you can’t deny the impact Preakness had—and continues to have—on Baltimore. It’s impossible to mistake the electricity that starts to fill the Baltimore air around mid-May, as hat makers prepare for the rush of orders and people start to assemble their race-day crews.

The festivities start on Friday with Black-Eyed Susan Day. Celebrated with a refreshing cocktail served in a commemorative Preakness glass with a mix of orange and peach juice, sour mix, and either vodka or bourbon (depending on the sponsor), Black-Eyed Susan Day almost rivals the main event on Saturday when it comes to the number of creative and bright hats on display.

This year is bittersweet for Pimlico, also known as Old Hilltop, as long-overdue renovations will shutter it for a few years and the Preakness will move to the much smaller Laurel Park. I have been shooting the Preakness on and off since the ’90s, but it was only in the last decade that I decided to knuckle down and really cover the event. The race premiered in 1873, two years before the Kentucky Derby, which would eventually precede it in the Triple Crown (the third “jewel” being the Belmont Stakes in New York).

In modern times, no Preakness photo essay would be complete without a trip to the infamous infield. A diverse gathering of partiers from all over the country, usually covered in mud, as it seems to habitually rain on Preakness Day, come together to dance, kiss, drink, mingle, wear cardboard beer cases on their heads, dress in cowboy hats (and little else), and get down to mainstream artists like Nas, Post Malone, Lorde, and Bruno Mars. In Baltimore, attending the infield party is like a rite of passage to the city’s college-aged residents. If the infield is the event’s height of debauchery, the adjancent white tents, with their elegant hats, bartenders, and buffet-style dining, is the track’s elite on the field.

Both of these groups, combined with the horses, jockeys, trainers, trumpeters, and judges, make up a dynamic fabric that may not survive another 150 years with the way the public views horse racing. These photos aren’t meant to take any side. They’re just an inside look at the yearly pageant that is the Preakness Stakes. —J.M. Giordano