BALTIMORE - Don't let that dateline fool you. Oh, yeah, I'm in Baltimore - everybody at the table is ordering the crabcakes - but will I be typing the name of a different city next year? More to the point, will this historic second leg of the Triple Crown, aka the 12th race, be back here next year?

Yes, probably, because that's not an unreasonable guess. But listen to enough people, watch enough hands being wrung, by the governor of Maryland, for instance, and you might begin to wonder. What can you say about a 135-year-old track that died? Aw (sarcastically). Or shrug.

The Preakness, and Pimlico, and Maryland racing share a serious problem. ("A very, very serious problem," the gov said Thursday). The problem is called Delaware and West Virginia and, very, very soon, Pennsylvania. The tracks in those first two states have slot machines up and running. Pennsylvania will be next.

The tracks love slots. They fill the house with people and people bring money. The tracks use that money to raise their purses and attract better horses and larger fields. Makes those tracks a lot more appealing to the simulcast bettors, the off-track bettors.

"You have to go where you can win more money," Tim Ritchey, the trainer of Afleet Alex, told the Baltimore Sun. "Look how many Kentucky Derby horses ran in Delaware. There's a reason for that."

The answer is four horses. Four more than ever tried the oats at Pimlico.

Afleet Alex is the Preakness morning line favorite, after running a not-too-distant third in the Kentucky Derby. He won the first two races of his life at Delaware, for purses twice as hefty as comparable races at Pimlico. And when they knew they had something special they moved him to Saratoga, Belmont, the Breeders' Cup, and the Derby prep races. ("Kid, you're going out there a horse, but you're coming back a star.")

He may have the best horse, but a lot of the questions Ritchey is hearing are about the Preakness' next address. Magna Entertainment Corp, the company that owns a controlling interest in Pimlico also owns Santa Anita, Gulfstream, Lone Star Park, and a bunch of other places where horses go round and round. Pimlico is becoming a minor league track - OK, the high minors - and the fella behind Magna isn't thought to be a sentimental kind of guy. Frank Stronach is said to have lost $200 million over the last three years. Pimlico and especially Laurel are taking up the kind of valuable acreage that would interest real estate developers.

"Here's what I know," says the governor, Robert Ehrlich. "Magna has shown me the numbers. They're hemorrhaging money in Maryland. I know, as good business people, they'll make a decision at some point. I understand the bottom line. I understand they have many other venues they can take this race."

And he understands, he says, that slots could be the miracle cure for racing in his state. Don't look at me, he lets you know, it's a few guys in the legislature keeping slot handles from being pulled.

Something's gotta give, right? Maryland is a racing and breeding state. Seems impossible to think the 131st Preakness would be held anywhere else. Just like it seemed ridiculous to imagine New York baseball without the Giants and Dodgers.

The Preakness at Gulfstream? Stay tuned. And order those crabcakes while you can.