Gerald Delp liked Ronnie Franklin from the start. “He was small, but he didn’t take any shit from anybody, and he was funny,” the 56-year-old Delp recalls with a laugh. “He was from Dundalk, and I grew up in Laurel. We clicked. Just the way you do with some people.”

As teenagers, they shared a mutual love of horse racing, girls, partying, and skipping school. Delp had known since he was 7 that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his dad, legendary trainer Grover “Bud” Delp, and he quit school after the ninth grade. Franklin had no interest in school, either, or a Baltimore factory job (in the mid-’70s, when such things still existed) and he quit Patapsco High and went to Pimlico looking for a job, even though he’d never been near a horse in his life. “I was 13 and Ronnie was probably 15 when we first met,” Delp says. “We began walking horses together.”

A few years later, 40 years ago this month, Delp’s father trusted the reins of a colt he called “the greatest horse ever to look through a bridle” to then 19-year-old Franklin, who rode the race of his life at the Kentucky Derby, rallying a slow-starting Spectacular Bid past six horses into the winner’s circle. In front of 72,607 at Pimlico, The Bid—owned by Baltimore builder Harry Meyerhoff—and The Kid did it again at the Preakness, producing two of the biggest moments in local sports history in the span of two weeks.

Franklin, who passed away last March at 58 from lung cancer, went on to win 1,403 races and $14 million in prize money during a 15-year career. “Horses liked to run for Ronnie,” says Walter Cullum, Franklin’s nephew and a former jockey. “You have to be fearless, and Ronnie was, and he was strong, but his gift was in his hands and the way he communicated with them. God-given ability.” Delp recalls a horse named Pioneer Patty, so tightly wound she’d climb the walls of her stall. “We put rubber padding around to protect her from herself,” he says. “She was Ronnie’s first mount. He rode her to five straight wins.”

Bud Delp had sent a green Franklin to the Middleburg Training Center for experience, and it was there that Franklin first developed a bond with Bid, a charcoal gray yearling. By that time, Franklin, the youngest of six, had moved in with Bud Delp, who was raising his two boys, Gerald and Doug, by himself.

The road to the Derby and Preakness was not easy for Franklin, however. With such little experience under his belt, he was pulled at one point off Bid, clearly a thoroughbred with the potential to be one of the sports all-time greats. “He’d eat twice as much as a normal horse, a sign he wanted to work,” Gerald Delp recalls. Franklin got the mount back when Bid didn’t respond to seasoned Panamanian jockey Jorge Velásquez.

The road after the Derby and Preakness was not easy, either. Franklin and Bid missed their Triple Crown shot at the Belmont Stakes when Franklin took him out too fast. Shortly afterward, the young star was busted for cocaine, and addiction became an on-and-off struggle. “Ronnie loved people. He’d give you the shirt off his back,” says Gerald Delp. “We all have our demons, including me.”

Franklin was again working with horses in California when he was told he had Stage IV lung cancer in 2017. He returned Dundalk, which had welcomed him home after his Kentucky Derby victory with banners up and down Merritt Boulevard. Franklin, who told a reporter back in 1979, “I never had no dreams of being nothing until I came to a race track,” had remained close to his family throughout.

“He lived the life he wanted to live,” says Cullum, who was just 5 in 1979 when Franklin gave him his whip and dusty racing goggles from the Kentucky Derby as a keepsake. “He didn’t have many regrets,” Cullum continues. “The only thing he wanted was to live until May so he could go crabbing again. He didn’t quite make it.”

Horse racing has always been a beloved custom and cause for celebration in the Land of Pleasant Living. For the 141st year, partake in the local tradition that is Preakness, which is back and better than ever, riding off the high of last year’s American Pharaoh sweep.

PREAKNESS PREGAMES:

Ryleigh’s Oyster Third Annual Triple Crown Series
May 7, 21, June 11: The county location of Ryleigh’s Oyster is transforming into a race party headquarters this season. With events planned for each jewel of the Triple Crown, the bar is going all out with classic cocktails, hat contests, and specialty snacks like biscuits with ham and pimento jelly, spiced peanuts, and fried green tomatoes. During the Preakness party on May 21, dress to the nines, sip Sagamore Spirit Crushes, and enjoy the sounds of country rocker Jenny Leigh during a special post-race performance. 22 W. Padonia Road, Lutherville-Timonium, 410-539-2093

Third Annual America’s Best Racing Pre-Preakness Party
May 18: Rub elbows with jockeys, sip Black-Eyed Susan cocktails, and enter to win swag like Preakness tickets and signed racing memorabilia at this pre-party to benefit the Thoroughbred Aftercare Allegiance. Mt. Washington Tavern, 5700 Newbury St., Free, 7-10 p.m., 410-367-6903

Turf Valley’s Preakness Celebration Hot Air Balloon Festival
May 19-21: Gather the family and head to Ellicott City to take in the sights and sounds of this annual fete, which offers everything from arts and crafts and food truck fare to tethered flights and grounded hot air balloon walk-throughs. Guests are also invited to watch 25 illuminated balloons light up the skyline to the beat of choreographed music during nightly glow-in-the-dark shows. Turf Valley, 2700 Turf Valley Road, Ellicott City, Free admission, 410-465-1500

BMore Around Town Pre-Preakness Party Packages
May 21: If you’re worried about parking and Uber surge-pricing on Preakness day, the tailgating experts at Bmore Around Town have got you covered. Round-trip transportation with beer on the bus and pregame brunch specials are highlights of this all-inclusive package offered at Mother’s Grille in Federal Hill and Claddagh Pub in Canton. 1113 S. Charles St. and 2918 O’Donnell St, $45

Shade 2016
May 21: Don your best spring formal attire and trot over to Port Discovery for this horse-themed charity event that features food and drink specials and music spun by DJ Candy D. All proceeds benefit Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s Hire One Youth initiative. Port Discovery, 35 Market Place, 8 p.m., $50-100.

Preakness Party Package at Mad River
May 21: This Federal Hill favorite is offering an all-inclusive party package for Preakness, which will include a breakfast buffet, bus transportation, one all-you-can-drink MUG Club ticket to Infieldfest, and open-bar access upon return. 1110 S. Charles St., 410-727-4333

Hats & Horses: An Evening at the Races
May 23: Bowties and big hats will be plentiful at this jockey-themed function featuring gourmet eats from the likes of Baldwin’s Station, Classic Catering, and La Scala, to benefit Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland. The Grand Lodge, 304 International Circle, Cockeysville, 5:30 p.m., 443-573-0945, $150

RACE-SEASON SIPS:

The Tavern Derby at Mt. Washington Tavern
In honor of horse-racing season, this neighborhood bar is rolling out a new collection of cocktails. The Preakness-inspired menu features the tavern’s takes on classic hunt club drinks such as the “Tavern Susan,” the “Tavern Belmont,” and the “Tavern Julep,” made with mint, simple syrup, Bullet rye, and club soda. All drinks are served in a commemorative, take-home glass. 5700 Newbury St., 410-367-6903

Polo Bar at Hunt Valley Inn
Despite a recent $15 million renovation, The Hunt Valley Inn’s equestrian roots have been maintained through its updated horse-country decor. Snag a seat at the hotel’s Polo Bar to sample specialty cocktails and small plates featured on a “Triple Crown” menu this season. Offerings include mint juleps, Black-Eyed Susans, and Belmont Breezes, as well as bites like ham and manchego crostini, spicy chicken skewers, and stuffed jalapeños.Other race-inspired options include Oaks Lily (Stoli vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice, and simple syrup) and Down the Stretch (Grey Goose, blue curacao, grenadine and lemon-lime soda).245 Shawan Road, Hunt Valley, 410-785-7000

Preakness-Inspired Cocktails at Colette
Bar manager Crystal Wack has added a slew of classic cocktails to the menu at this Station North newbie in honor of Preakness. Order traditional mint juleps, Black Eyed Susans, and Belmont Breezes, or try the new “Sir Barton” cocktail, which is Wack’s take on the classic Southside. 1709 N. Charles St., 443-835-2945

PIMLICO PARTIES:

Sunrise at Old Hilltop
May 17-20: Enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at the Preakness contenders’ morning workout, with a tour of the barn and view of the sunrise. Pimlico Grandstand. 6-9 a.m.

Preakness Post-Position Draw
May 18: Officials will pull starting positions for the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, which also will be streamed live online. Pimlico Sports Palace. 5 p.m.

Preakness Alibi Breakfast
May 19: Join trainers, owners, and jockeys for breakfast as they tell fans and the media what it takes to make it to Preakness and possibly become a racing legend. Pimlico Race Course. 9:30 a.m.

Jockey Autograph Session
May 20: Fans will have the chance to meet their favorite riders before their big race on Saturday. Pimlico Grandstand. 10-11 a.m.

Black-Eyed Susan Day
May 20: The day before the mane (ahem) event, watch this historic filly race, enjoy an infield concert, sip Black-Eyed Susan cocktails, and attend a women’s networking lunch, all to benefit Susan G. Komen Maryland and Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. Pimlico Race Course. 11:30 a.m.

Budweiser Infieldfest
May 21: Don’t miss the party of the year, with big-name musical acts like rapper Fetty Wap (of “Trap Queen” fame), electronic duo The Chainsmokers (remember that “#Selfie” song?), and Towson’s own All Time Low. Pimlico Race Course. Doors open at 8 a.m.

141st Preakness Stakes
May 21: The big day has finally arrived: the 141st Preakness Stakes! Fourteen of the nation’s best jockeys and horses compete to win the second jewel of the Triple Crown. Pimlico Race Course. Doors open at 8 a.m. Race begins at 6:18 p.m.

There are certain spring fashion staples that never go out of style—open-toed shoes, light cotton sweaters, sundresses—but one accessory that trumps them all is the formal sun hat.

And while it gets a slight update each season—maybe a different kind of trim or a new color—this iconic wide-brim hat is eternally synonymous with such traditional warm-weather events as the Triple Crown and May Day.

Giovannio Sin Specta navy and white hat ($169) at Hats in the Belfry.

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Six horses come barreling around the rail at Churchill Downs, a cacophony of thundering hooves and screaming fans providing the soundtrack to one of the most astonishing finishes in recent horse racing history.

At the 16th pole, Shared Account surges from the inside into the lead. She’s carrying famed jockey Edgar Prado and odds longer than the lunchtime line at Faidley’s. But there’s even more riding on this four-year-old’s back: a shot at validation for the Baltimore businessman determined to resurrect a legendary Maryland farm.

As she gallops toward the finish line, it seems the lofty weight of possibility only spurs on the 1,200-pound filly. Not even the renowned horse Midday can catch this brown blur, who dashes one and three-eighths miles in two minutes and 17.74 seconds—an average speed of about 35 miles per hour—to victory.

Shared Account’s win at the Breeders’ Cup in November was more than just the biggest upset in the history of the Filly and Mare Turf race, one of racing’s preeminent events. It also served notice, with all the subtlety of a Louisville Slugger to the side of the head, that the once-great Sagamore Farm was back.

“Long shots define everything about my life,” says Sagamore’s savior, Kevin Plank, after the race. “Everything we [do] came out today in a 46-to-1 long shot. I think we had odds a little longer than that at Under Armour.”

He’s referring, of course, to the sports apparel company he founded in 1996 in his grandmother’s Washington, D.C. row house. It’s grown into a global brand, and Plank says he’s using the same blueprint to turn Sagamore, the 530-acre Glyndon farm once home to the now-mythical stallion Native Dancer, into nothing short of America’s next great sports franchise.

“I fundamentally believe that we’ll deliver the next Triple Crown winner,” he says, though Sagamore won’t have a contender this year. “I want that identity where people turn on the Kentucky Derby and say, ‘Is there a Sagamore horse? I like Sagamore horses, they are tough and gritty every time they run.’”

Shared Account’s win is the most visible chapter in the story Plank is trying to create, but it isn’t the first. He bought Sagamore Farm in 2007, and since then has overseen its physical renovation and the creation of a racing organization from the horseshoes up.

“We were always very clear—this is a 20-year plan,” he says. “I use the statement at Under Armour that we’re always smart enough to be naïve enough to not know what we can’t accomplish. Winning the Breeders’ Cup in year four is like striking lightening, but we always believed it could happen.”

Just about everyone else in the horse racing world considered Shared Account an afterthought. Plank was both puzzled and amused by the indifference.

“He felt like he had a great horse,” says Eric Mitchell, editorial director of The Blood-Horse, an industry magazine. “Obviously, the betting public didn’t see it that way. But Shared Account won. That’s horse racing.”

While stunning to most, the swiftness with which Plank has steered Sagamore back to the winner’s circle is the natural speed at which he’s always operated. The 38-year-old conceived of Under Armour while he was a football player at the University of Maryland; last year, the company posted revenues of more than $1 billion.

Before he set out creating the “biggest, baddest brand on the planet,” Plank was the Terrapins’ scrappy special teams captain. Originally a walk-on, in five years he never missed a practice.

Not to say that college was all work and no play. As an undergrad, he attended his first Preakness, and it was the fading fortunes of the second jewel of the Triple Crown that ultimately sparked his entrance into the horse business. For years, the crumbling infrastructure of Pimlico Race Course and the overall decline of Maryland racing have raised fears that the state could lose the iconic race.

“The Preakness needs to be looking at the Kentucky Derby and saying we’re going to kick your butt,” Plank says. “There’s such a negative impression of Maryland racing. They need to stop talking about what they can’t do and start talking about what they can do. Slots are not going to save racing in the state. Great stories and a belief in people, that’s what needs to be driven home.”

Plank views himself as an advocate for Maryland racing, not its shepherd or spokesman. “Name another day when the entire country looks at Maryland,” he says. “It’s a great platform for us to say, ‘Look at the resources we have here.’ We need to sell this area. Maryland’s a phenomenal place. I would like to use Sagamore’s success as a vehicle to help tell that story.”

In 2006, an old high school teammate of Plank’s, Tom Mullikin, stopped by for dinner. After 9/11, Mullikin had suffered what he called a “quarter-life crisis,” ditched the corporate world, and moved to Kentucky to work on a horse farm. Once the two men had polished off a couple of steaks, Plank pulled his buddy aside: He was getting into horse racing, and he wanted Mullikin to head up his operation.

“I said, ‘Well, good luck. It’s a tough game, there’s a lot of sharks out there,’” Mullikin recalls.

But Plank was determined to get his man. Too many Maryland horsemen, Plank thinks, are resigned to being chum. “They’re so beaten down and negative,” he says. “That’s why we hired no one from the area. We imported people from Kentucky. Tommy had a swagger and he was just a winner.”

In his old friend, Mullikin saw the same qualities. So he took a leap of faith, quitting his job in the heart of horse country to work for a man in Baltimore with absolutely no experience in the game.

They set out looking for a farm. No matter where they went, time and time again they’d find their way back to Sagamore.

“I thought we’d start with 100 acres and parlay that into something bigger,” Mullikin says. “He showed me [Sagamore] and I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ There was a lot of history here, but it was like urban renewal. I was a little overwhelmed at first.”

Though it looked all of its 80-plus years, Sagamore’s pedigree was sterling. Founded in 1925 by Isaac Emerson of Bromo-Seltzer fame, it was bequeathed to his grandson Alfred Vanderbilt when he turned 21.

A member of New York’s wealthy Vanderbilt clan, Alfred turned Sagamore into a world-renowned farm. The Queen of England kept a broodmare on the property during its heyday, but its most famous resident always will be Native Dancer. From 1952 to 1954, he won 21 of his 22 career races, including the Preakness, and captured the public’s imagination like few horses before him—or since. His popularity was such that, in 1953, TV Guide named him one of America’s three most popular figures. (Ed Sullivan and Arthur Godfrey were the humans who made the cut.) Vanderbilt sold Sagamore to developer James Ward in 1986. For the next two decades, it floundered, its deterioration in many ways a metaphor for a once-proud industry now struggling to survive.

But Plank saw only promise.

“Sagamore Farm may be the prettiest place in America,” he says. “Go to Grand Canyon, go to Sonoma Valley, but [this] is about as picturesque as it gets.”

Stroll through the farm today and it’s tough to argue. A winding drive leads from Belmont Avenue to the “Big House” atop a hill. In the foyer, photos of famous Sagamore residents Discovery and Bed o’ Roses hang alongside images of Native Dancer, including a framed copy of his 1954 Time magazine cover. A large Maryland flag hangs over a fireplace in the living room, leading to a back patio with sweeping vistas.

All this beauty carries a weighty price, but Plank’s pockets are plenty deep. His last public disclosure reported that he owns 12,093,750 shares of Under Armour stock, which was trading at about $68 a share on March 14. While he won’t disclose how much he paid for Sagamore, running an operation its size is estimated to be a seven-figure endeavor.

“I’m in [horse racing] because we’re building the next great athletic brand,” says Plank. “This isn’t meant to be some charitable thing that you just throw money at. Frankly, nobody’s pockets are that deep, and more importantly, it’s just depressing.”

To develop a world-class horse, you need a world-class facility. “When we first took the farm over, there were 17 miles of fence ranging from four to 40 years old,” Plank says. “While we respect the history of the farm, we’re going to build our own history. So the first thing we did was we tore down all that fence.”

Eleven miles of new four-board oak fencing have been installed, and 150 acres of corn and vegetation have been returned to pasture. The broodmare and foaling barns have been renovated, and now include an observation room, video monitoring system, large stall windows, and skylights.

The three-quarter mile outdoor track was redone using a synthetic base that includes recycled Under Armour shirts. Down the line, the 90-stall training barn with a quarter-mile indoor track may undergo a facelift.

Sagamore now houses 36 horses, and is expecting eight foals this spring.

“He’s training horses there and he’s breeding horses there,” says Cricket Goodall, executive director of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association. “All of that is evidence of his commitment to the industry. It’s a beautiful farm that was in need of somebody to believe in it. There were several wonderful farms that bred great horses in Maryland that over the years have become housing developments. Those are gone, but Sagamore is not, and I think the thoroughbred industry is indebted to him in some ways.”

Inside the very first horse trailer that rolled onto Kevin Plank’s Sagamore was Shared Account, purchased as a yearling for $170,000.

“Winston Churchill had the famous line, ‘There’s something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man,’” Mullikin says. “She had good size, and she has a really cool personality. At the Breeders’ Cup, there’s all this commotion, and she’s just hanging out. I could have put my six-year-old daughter on her. Then she goes out and has a heart like a bulldog.”

Shared Account had won just five of her previous 14 starts when she entered the Breeders’ Cup. The sharps clearly weren’t sold: a $2 Shared Account win ticket wound up paying a wallet-fattening $94. Plank coyly deflects questions about how many of those he held. “Enough that I was sticking money in my socks and my underwear,” he says.

When you combine that with the official winner’s share of $1.08 million, it was a dream day for Plank, and perhaps more importantly, for Maryland racing.

“You’ve got to be the ultimate optimist, and you’ve got to have a great capacity for suffering to be in this business,” says Bill Witman, manager of famous Calumet Farm in Lexington, KY. “The win at the Breeders’ Cup kind of capped what he’s doing in the industry. He’s innovative, he’s got great support and direction.”

At one point before the race, Plank was dismissively ushered aside by the security detail of an Arab sheik. But after it, his place at the podium in the sport of kings was undeniable.

“We’re going to use the farm and the little bit of success we’ve had so far as a vehicle to tell people about racing,” he says. “We’re producing world champions with the mentality we have here. I want people to know that we did it the Maryland way—we earned it.”